After quitting the city of Plafencia, and eroding the
river Xerte, you pafs over the hill of Calcones, op*
polite the city, then defcend into the territory of the
Vega, leaving ort your left the villages of Gargue-
ra,-Barrado, and Arroyo Molinos; you next go through
the village o f Pafaron, five leagues from Plafencia,
and come to a pleafant fituation called La Magdalena,
where there is a good farm houfe, which formerly
belonged to the Jefuits: you are now at a league s
diftance from jufte, and to go there you traverfe a
woody country with a few chefnut trees, and pafs feve-
ral brooks, where they catch excellent trout. The convent
o f Jufte is fituated nearly in the centre of the Vera,
on the brow o f a fteep hill, which proteils it from the
North wind, and with other mountains forms that chain
which is called the Puerto de Tornavacas, joining with
the hills of Arenas, Puerto del Pico, and others. Neither
thee onvent nor church have any thing remarkable,
and would have pafled on to future ages in oblivion,
had it not been for the diftinftion ihewn them by the
great Emperor who ended his life in this folitary place.
Over the great altar in the church, they have a copy
of that famous picture called the glory of Titian, which
ftood formerly here, and was removed to the Efcurial
by exprefs command of the Emperor, who ordered that
the original ihould be fixed in the fame church with his
remains. The following infcription is feen on the wall,
in
in a corner o f the garden, underneath the arms o f the
Emperor.
“ EN E S T A S A N T A C A S A DE S. H I E R O N IM O D E J U S T E
" S E R E T IR O A A C A B A R SU VIDA, E L Q U E T O D A L A
“ G A S T O EN DEE ENSA. DE LA FE Y C O N S E R V A C IO N DE
.“ L A JU S T TCI A, C A R L O S V. E M P E R A D O R R E Y D E L A S
| ES P A N AS C H R I S T IA N I S IM O , IN V I C T I S IMO . M U R IO A
“ 2.1 D E S E T I E M B R E DE
In this holy houfe o f St. Jerom o f Ju fte , ended his days, he, who fpent
the whole o f them in defence of the faith, and in fupport o f juftice,
Charles', F. Emperor, King o f Spain. Moft. chriftian, invincible. He died
on, the. 21ft: Sept. 1 3 5 8 .
Thele are the only traces left here of that great Emperor,.
who once filled the world with the glory of his deeds.
The ruined decorations- of the garden and ponds feem
to intimate their priftine flate in happier days, and the
feveral plantations- in the Vera, watered by numberlefs
brooks, might once have exhibited a more pleafing appearance..
A diftinriion muft be made between the Vera of Plafencia
and the Valle de Plafencia. The valley extends from
the city to the Puerto deTornavacas,upon a ftraightline
from Eaft to-North, the length o f nine leagues, and fo
level,, that the whole extent lies open to your view, as
far as the Puerto, clofed by high mountains, dividing.on
the right hand the Fera from the Falle,, and on the left