A lost Fragment and Gate of the Almohad Wall of the World Heritage City of Cáceres, Spain

Abstract

The objective of this research is the documentation of a lost fragment of the Cáceres' Almohad Wall hidden in within some houses that used it in their construction. Thanks to a research of the urban development of the City of Caceres an anomaly in the urban planning was discovered that made us suspect that some popular houses hided a fragment of the ancient Almohad Wall. After the analysis of this singularity the existence of a "lost piece" of the city was discovered; a hidden denatured military structure preserved along the centuries by several houses that reused it within "economy of means". This paper studies this lost fragment from a holistic perspective: constructive, urbanistic and planimetric; verifying that this is a fragment of the ancient Almohad Wall. The aim of the paper is to contribute not only to the knowledge of Cáceres' Almohad wall, but also to a better understanding of the buildings and spaces of the city from the perspective of how they were constructed; hoping that this knowledge will help to preserve them.