You can get to pleasant Olivenza from the nearby Badajoz, in Extremadura. It was founded by the Templars in the XIII century, and its main attractions are the citadel, museum, palace, the royal bakery, the bull fighting arena and the Magdalena Church. Its12.000 inhabitants speak Spanish and many still use Portuguese.
Olivenza was a Portuguese territory until the War of the Oranges, between Portugal and Spain, in 1801, when Spain obtained this town and countryside around in the following peace negotiations.
I happened to be there a Sunday, and everything was closed except the Magdalena Church, which interior was fully decorated with beautiful tiles (or azulejos, which in Spanish and Portuguese languages means blue tiles, from the word azul, blue), in the typical Portuguese Manuelino style.
Places such as Olivenza in Spain, Aland Islands in Finland, Islas de la Bahia in Honduras, Sidi Ifni in Morocco, Sikkim in India, or Tibet in China are special for the combination of two cultures.
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