Badājoz'

Badājoz', capital of the Spanish province of the same name, is built on a slight hill crowned by a Moorish castle, on the left bank of the Guadiana, crossed here by a stone bridge of 28 arches. It is but 5 miles from the Portuguese frontier, and is 174 miles from Lisbon, and 315 from Madrid by rail. Badajoz is a fortress of the first rank, and the see of a bishop, and has an old cathedral built like a fortress, with a splendid organ, and paintings by Cerezo and Morales. Its monasteries have been secularised, and some of its nunneries closed. Its chief articles of manufacture are hats, soap, coarse woollens, leather, and pottery. It has also a large trade in cattle. Pop. (1887) 28,681. Badajoz was the Pax Augusta of the Romans, the Bax Augos, Bathaljus of the Moors. As one of the keys of Portugal, it has often been a place of importance in war. It was besieged in vain by the Portuguese in 1660, and again by the allies, in the Spanish War of Succession, in 1705. During the Peninsular war, Badajoz was besieged by the French in 1808, and in 1809, and again in 1811, when it surrendered, March 11, to Soult. It was thrice besieged by the English; first on April 20, 1811, next in May and June, and thirdly in the spring of 1812, when Wellington captured the city by storm, on the night of April 6, after a murderous contest, and a loss during the twenty days' siege of 72 officers and 963 men killed, and 306 officers and 3483 men wounded. There were two days of pillage, and deplorable excesses. The province has an area of 8637 sq. m.; pop. 481,508. See ESTREMADURA.