File:Alcántara, Memorial.jpg

English: Alcántara, Memorial “A todos los que dieron su vida por España”.

Alcántara, because of its bridge over Rio Tajo (first built early 2nd century), had to sustain several conflicts : during the Reconquista, the War of Succession of Spain, the Guerra de la Independencia, and the Carlist Wars.

All victims are now remembered by a memorial at the entrance to the historical centre. The Coat of Arms is current, adopted in 1981, under the reign (1975-2014) of King Juan Carlos I.

What Alcántara, like so many less documented places, had to undergo during those times was not limited to the battles and combats proper as told (and retold) by history books, even treatises : much wickedness and abuse took place in the apparent lulls between fights.

As a telling exemple from the six-year long War of Independence from the napoléonic régime (1808-1814), enduring the French occupying forces is briefly described by these few words : In mid April [1809], the village of Alcántara had been sacked by Gen. Lapisse, where even the non-combattants were butchered, mutilated, or raped, and then – as a parting shot – burned on a pyre together with pigs and dogs ! (I.C. Robertson, Wellington at War in the Peninsula, 2000, 89).

Another French commander (Junot) had already plundered Alcántara in November 1807, en route to Portugal where his actions, and his troops's, would amount to much the same.