Plasencia

Plasencia, a city of Spain and an episcopal see, in the north of the province of Caceres. Pop. (1900), 8208. Plasencia is situated on the river Jerte, a subtributary of the Tagus, and at the foot of the sierras of Bejar and Vera. The place has some interest on account of its fine walls, built in 1197 by Alphonso VIII. of Castile, and its cathedral, begun in 1498, a favourable specimen of the ornate Gothic of its period. The Hieronymite convent of Yuste, the scene of the last years of the emperor Charles V. (1500-1558), is 24 M. east.