Zaragoza is the capital of Aragon and Spain's fifth city, with about 690,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ebro, halfway between Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao, and is an important logistics and industrial hub. For visitors it is a surprising, little-touristed and very pleasant city.
History
Founded by the Romans around 14 BC as Caesaraugusta, in honour of the emperor Augustus, from which its present name derives, it was then Visigothic and, from 714, Moorish, as Saraqusta: in the eleventh century it was the capital of a rich taifa kingdom. In 1118 Alfonso I the Battler took it and it became the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon. During the War of Independence it withstood two terrible Napoleonic sieges (1808-1809), an episode that made it famous throughout Europe. In 2008 it hosted the International Exposition on water (see Expo 2008).
What to see
- The Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, a huge Baroque sanctuary with eleven domes and four towers on the Ebro. It holds the pillar (pilar) on which, according to tradition, the Virgin appeared to the apostle James in AD 40. The domes are frescoed by Goya and Francisco Bayeu; a lift goes up one of the towers.
- La Seo, the Cathedral of the Saviour, combining styles from Romanesque to Baroque, with its Mudéjar outer wall decorated in ceramics and a museum of Flemish tapestries.
- The Aljafería Palace, built in the eleventh century by the taifa kings, with the Santa Isabel courtyard and interlaced arches, later a palace of the Christian kings and now home to the Aragonese parliament (see Mudéjar and al-Andalus).
- Plaza del Pilar, one of Europe's largest pedestrian squares, with the Renaissance Lonja and the Fountain of Hispanidad.
- The Roman remains: theatre, forum, river port and baths, visited in the museums of the Caesaraugusta Route.
- The Puente de Piedra over the Ebro, with views of the basilica.
- The Goya Museum and the Pablo Gargallo Museum, devoted to the Aragonese sculptor.
- The Expo park and Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta.
Festivals and tapas
The Fiestas del Pilar, in the week of 12 October, are among Spain's biggest, with the flower offering to the Virgin and the jota. El Tubo, a maze of lanes behind Plaza de España, is the tapas quarter (see festivals and fun and eating in Zaragoza).
Practical information
Delicias station is on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line: Madrid is 1 hour 20 minutes away, Barcelona under 2 hours (see the Madrid-Barcelona train). The airport has some international flights (see Zaragoza airport). The city has a tram line. In winter the cierzo, a cold north-westerly wind, often blows; summers are very hot. Nearby you can visit the Monasterio de Piedra, Tarazona, Moncayo, Fuendetodos, Goya's birthplace, and Belchite, the village destroyed in the civil war.