Galisteo - Extremadura's secret village. Forgotten Spain.
- Mark Eveleigh
- Mar 11
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 25
In Galisteo (20 minutes drive from Plasencia or 50 minutes from Cáceres) time drifts like wood-smoke, like ghosts through the narrow streets. Surrounded by the seemingly endless plains of the Sierra de Santa Bárbara and a sweeping curve of the Río Jerte, the town rises from the earth with a quiet dignity, its fortress walls whispering tales of centuries gone by. Here, the air is thick with the scent of sagebrush and the dry, warm earth, where olive trees grow like gnarled and ancient sentinels.
The village is a patchwork of whitewashed houses, doors and windows framed with iron, and rooftops shimmering beneath the weight of the sun. The Plaza Mayor, a place of stillness during the hot afternoon, comes to life in the evening with the soft murmur of voices and the rustle of leaves in the breeze. The walls, worn by time, still encircle the village, their stones holding fast to the secrets of an ancient past.
Galisteo doesn’t rush. It lives in the space between moments, in the quiet footsteps of its few, weathered inhabitants. Its soul is woven into the land, into the rhythm of its seasons, where the night sky glows with a million undimmed stars, and the past lingers in every shadow, never truly leaving.