The Order of Alcantara is a military and religious order created in 1154 in the Kingdom of León, and which still endures today. It is one of the four great Spanish Military Orders, the other three being Santiago, Calatrava and Montesa.

Foundation was born on the banks of the river Côa, in the Beira Alta (Portugal) under the name of "Ordem de São Julião do Pereiro" (Order of San Julián del Pereiro), founded in 1093 by the Count Enrique de Burgoña.1 2 After his conquest of the Muslims in 1213, the defense of the city of Alcántara was commissioned to the Order of Calatrava in 1214 Following the establishment of its headquarters in the village received, the primitive name of order of San Julian was gradually disappearing, until in 1253 its masters were entitled “masters of the order of Alcantara”, being reduced San Julian Pereiro to be a simple commission of the order.

Possessions His first possessions were located further north than it would later be the main settlement nucleus. They began to grow when, to the received town of Alcántara, Santibáñez and Portezuelo joined, after winning a lawsuit to the order of the Temple, as well as Navasfrías, donated by Alfonso IX, and Valencia de Alcantara, conquered by the knights of the order in 1220. In this way his fundamental block of possessions was configured in the party of Alcantara, west of the province of Cáceres.

• The beginning of its settlement in the east of the province of Badajoz, in the region of La Serena, which would be the other great nucleus of the lordship of the order, takes place in 1231 when it conquers Magacela, which would be definitively donated to the order three years later by Fernando III the Saint as compensation for certain rights alleged over the village of Trujillo. Magacela is constituted in order and a priory is created with jurisdiction in the neighboring territory. At the same time the order is commissioned by the king to repopulate Zalamaea, conquered by those years.

After the conquest of Cordoba in 1236 by Ferdinand III, it can be said that the order completed in practice its possessions. Then they were donated Benquerencia and Esparragal, the latter conquered by the Templars. His lordship, however, would not be rounded until the beginning of the 14th century, when he obtained the donation of the castle of Eljas in 1302 and of Villanueva de la Serena a year later. Although the order participated in the conquest of Andalusia, it barely received donations in this region, limited to the castles of Morón and Cote and the place of the Arahal, which were donated to him by Sancho IV of Castile in 1285, but permuted with Pedro Girón in the 15th century (1461) in exchange for Salvatierra, Villanueva de Barcarrota and the castle of Azagala. In 1312, when the Order of the Temple was dissolved,3 the castle of Alconchel became of the Order of Alcantara.4 15th century In 1492 the Catholic King Ferdinand II of Aragon obtained from Pope Alexander VI the grant of the title of Grand Master of the order with a lifetime character.

Then, the territories of the Sewers covered part of the present province of Cáceres on its border with Portugal, the foothills of the Sierra de Gata and much of the eastern part of the province of Badajoz (the region of La Serena). An approximate extension of 7000 km2, not including some isolated possessions in Andalusia and Castilla. In that century the military power of the Alcantara order is lower than that of Santiago and that of Calatrava, due to its minor territorial possessions and, consequently, its lower economic power.