Hervás: A Jewish Quarter of Chestnut Beams

A substantial Jewish community established itself beside the Ambroz in the 15th century, and Hervás has one of the best-preserved Jewish quarters in Spain — steep, narrow lanes of houses framed in chestnut timber with adobe infill, leaning into each other over the street, dropping down to the river. The valley behind is chestnut forest, which is where the timber came from and which turns colour spectacularly in autumn. The town is the main settlement of the Ambroz valley in the northern edge of Cáceres province, under the Sierra de Béjar.