A stitch in time

摘要

The Spanish province of Extremadura has been battled over for millennia since first being conquered by the Romans. It was a ca-liphate from the 8th to 12th centuries, and once recaptured by the Spanish, had to deal with an expansionist Portugal to the west. It explains the towers of the walled city of Caceres, a number of which - notably the 12th century Torre del Bujaco - still guard its old town. But it has another historic ene-my - poverty. There's a reason why the New World shares many place names with those of the province; conquistador Francisco Pizarro was one of its many sons driven to seek for-tunes abroad that had eluded them at home. Extremadura remains the second poorest region in Spain, a stark reality that noted art collector Helga de Alvear was perhaps at-tempting to remedy with her new Museum of Contemporary Art. This, together with the 2015 Mies van der Rohe Prize shortlist-ed Atrio Relais & Chateaux hotel by Mansil-la + Tunon, is intended to draw new tourist hordes - and their gold - to the medieval Un-esco Heritage City. De Alvear kept on Emilio Tunon for her museum, to work his magic on a steeply sloping site at the medieval town's south west corner, where it fights off the more prosaic 20th century expansion in the valley below.