Quintana de la Serena

Camino Mozárabe

BadajozExtremadura

Compound. Quintana ('property whose rent was the fifth') plus de la Serena, historical region.

Pacense town of La Serena with traditional 'Crema Aurora' granite quarry extracted from the 16th century and exported to all Europe for ornamental use.

Evolution of the name

  1. quintana medieval Latin 5th–9th centuries
  2. Quintana de la Serena medieval Castilian from the 13th century

Reflections, to the letter

The name keeps the memory of an estate whose rent was paid as a fifth of the harvest: a Roman-rooted farmstead. Five kilometres out, on the open dehesa, stands Hijovejo, a fortified tower to which the Romans added a working farm with its own grain store. Climbing up to it and looking out over the surrounding sweep of pasture, you see the kind of agrarian holding that gave the place its name, long before granite gave it another trade.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Serena granite
Granitic variety of the Pedroches batholith (southern Badajoz), traditionally extracted in the quarries of Quintana de la Serena and commercialised with the denomination 'Crema Aurora' or 'Crema Quintana'. Cream-yellowish coloration with dark veins, used in paving, ornamental façade and sculpture from the 16th century. Annual production of 80,000 tonnes exported mainly to Europe and the United States.

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Camino Mozárabe

  1. Mérida
  2. Quintana de la Serena
  3. Campanario
  4. La Coronada
  5. Castuera
  6. Belalcázar
  7. Hinojosa del Duque
  8. Alcaracejos
  9. ··· toward the start