Photos of Guijuelo (Salamanca), the capital of Iberian ham (July 2023)

=> Photos from July 2023

Guijuelo is a town and municipality in the southeast of the province of Salamanca, in Castilla and León (Spain, Europe). It is currently considered the capital of the Guijuelo region and the subregion of Salvatierra. It belongs to the judicial district of Béjar, the judicial district No. 4 of the province of Salamanca, and is also part of the community of municipalities of Guijuelo and its surroundings.

According to data from the INE for the year 2023, it has a population of 5,484 inhabitants and an area of 63.23 km². The municipality of Guijuelo is divided between the town of Guijuelo (the municipal capital) and the villages of Campillo de Salvatierra (the largest of the three), Palacios de Salvatierra, and Cabezuela de Salvatierra (it is worth mentioning that these three Guijuelo villages, before the 1970s, were fully independent municipalities with their own town halls but became reintegrated into the municipality of Guijuelo due to depopulation).

When we talk about Guijuelo, everyone thinks of 'Iberian ham'. Indeed, Guijuelo is considered by many to be the world cradle of Iberian ham, with its own Protected Designation of Origin of Guijuelo and more than 200 factories, slaughterhouses, and cutting rooms spread throughout the municipality of Guijuelo (many of them integrated within the urban core) and in several nearby municipalities (one of the best examples is the industrial and ham-producing village of Ledrada, just a few kilometers south of Guijuelo). These meat-processing factories, with their incredible economic potential in the area, have made Guijuelo one of the wealthiest municipalities in all of Salamanca and Castilla and León, with a very low unemployment rate and over half of the population employed. That is why Guijuelo has been able to invest in a new, modern, and cutting-edge Town Hall building, a spectacular new Main Square, beautifully designed new Municipal Swimming Pools, several well-decorated playgrounds especially for children, a new avant-garde Plaza de Julián Coca, etc.

The beautiful parish church of Guijuelo is consecrated to Our Lady of the Assumption; an interesting fact is that it was inaugurated on May 28, 1958, and was built thanks to the support and donations from all the residents of Guijuelo.