Badajoz · Extremadura
Olivenza
A whitewashed town that feels Portuguese despite being Spanish since 1801 — locals say its women are 'daughters of Spain and granddaughters of Portugal.'
What Olivenza is like
Portrait drawn from The Rough Guide.
25km southwest of Badajoz, on the old disputed Spanish-Portuguese frontier.
Worth the trip
- Surviving town walls and a castle housing the Museo Etnográfico, including part of a 150kg meteorite that fell in 1924
- Iglesia Santa María Magdalena, in the distinctive Portuguese Manueline style with twisted-column arcades
A little history
Long disputed between Spain and Portugal, Spanish only since 1801, yet its buildings and character remain markedly Portuguese.
Who it suits: Border-history travellers
The numbers
The decision data — each figure against the Spanish average. Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 10.4°C 2.6°C above the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 35.6°C 5.4°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 59 days 14% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine
- no local data
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 73 17 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €10,854 25% less than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 32.4%
Schools
- Schools in town
- 4
- Nearest international school
- 25 km
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 469 12 below the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 39 min
- Nearest health centre
- 4.4 km
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 135 days 25% more than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 46 min
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 89% 10% above the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 90% 7% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 11,775
- Born in Spain
- 94.9% 6.1% above the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1.8% 2.1% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.17 per 1,000
Numbers: SettleSpain town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma, Ministerio del Interior and the Catastro. National average = the unweighted mean across all 8,132 Spanish municipalities with data. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
How does Olivenza fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Olivenza against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 50 min from Badajoz, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Olivenza for you →Nearby towns
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