Badajos

Badajos (classic Pax Augusta), a province in the S.W. of Spain with its capital, an ancient fortified city, on the river Guadiana, about five miles from the Portuguese frontier. The tortuous streets contain many churches and monasteries, now used as barracks and hospitals, and the cathedral is itself a kind of fortress. In the Peninsular war Badajos was captured by Soult (1811), and after two futile attempts retaken by the British under Wellington (April 6, 1812). The siege and assault cost the assailants 5,000 men in killed or wounded. Terrible scenes were enacted in the sacking of the town, which lasted two days. The painter Morales (El Divino) was born here.