The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: June twenty-fifth, exploring Spanish Extremadura.

The thin, dry, rocky soil of west central Spain has always made it a tough place to live. The stone-walled towns that dot the landscape of vineyards and olive trees are silent testament to the armies who have periodically swept through the area, Roman, Moor, Crusader and Facist.

In the early 16th-century, a band of 175 Extramadurans left to seek their fortunes in the then very new, New World. They were led by Francisco Pizarro, a former swineherd and youngest of seven illegitimate children of a local war hero. With guile and cruelty, Pizarro and his tiny army quickly laid waste to the empire of the Incas that stretched a thousand miles over South America's Andes mountains.

By savagely brutalizing the natives and eradicating their civilization, Pizarro and his conquistadors were able to funnel untold treasures back to Extremadura, and in particular to Trujillo, their hometown. Their families and heirs used the wealth to build seigniorial mansions and adorn churches. For centuries, they lived grand lives, but when fortunes faded, the people of Trujillo went back to wresting their livelihood from the beautiful but unforgiving landscape.

Oft ignored since then, Trujillo's has been preserved almost intact. A microcosm of Spanish life and history lies within those medieval walls. Pizarro's Palace still stands on the main square. Storks nest in the turrets of a Moorish fort and the steeples of Renaissance churches. Trujillo is the unspoiled essence of classic Spain.

For Spanish Tourism, 212-265- 8822 or www.okspain.org or www.tourspain.com

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