Village
Biescas is a town in the comarca of Alto Gállego, in Huesca, situated at 875 metres of altitude on the banks of the Gállego river, at the gateway to the Valle de Tena. It has traditionally been a communications hub between La Jacetania and Sobrarbe, linked by the Cotefablo pass to the Valle del Ara. The town centre stretches along the river and is divided into the San Pedro and Salvador quarters. It has 1,640 inhabitants. From its past it preserves the Eneolithic cists of the Santa Engracia esplanade, remains of the Roman road of the Valle de Tena and the ermita de Santa Elena, rebuilt in 1253 by Jaime I and granted privileges by Ferdinand the Catholic and Carlos I.
Monument
A late medieval castle from the 15th century, in late Romanesque style, linked to the Aragonese Urriés family until the late 19th century. Restored by the Amigos de Serrablo association, which was awarded the Gold Medal for Fine Arts in 1985 and the Europa Nostra Award in 2002 for the work, it now houses the drawing museum dedicated to Ángel Orensanz and the Arts of Serrablo, with a collection of nearly 4,800 works, of which 380 are permanently displayed in 17 rooms: on the ground floor, Aragonese artists such as Francisco Pradilla, Ramón Acín and Pablo Serrano; on the first floor, artists such as Salvador Dalí or Ignacio Zuloaga, with spaces devoted to graphic humour and comics. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), it is today a national reference point for contemporary Spanish drawing.
Nature
The Sierra de Tendeñera is an inner Pyrenean mountain range located in the Huesca districts of Alto Gállego and Sobrarbe, north of Biescas, on the boundary of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park. It stretches about 15 kilometres from west to east, from Santa Elena, at the entrance to the Tena valley, to Bujaruelo. Its highest peak is the punta Tendeñera, at 2,853 metres, along with others such as peña Sabocos (2,757 m) and punta de la Ripera (2,823 m); on this peak and on the Vachesango peak the contact between the flysch formations and the limestones of the inner ranges is exposed. Declared a Special Area of Conservation under the Natura 2000 Network, it is home to twenty-eight mountain plant species, including the moss Buxbaumia viridis, and is a passage site for fifty-seven bird species.
Nature
Stretch of the río Gállego that runs through the Tena valley and the municipality of Biescas, cutting through the outer ranges at the Foz de Santa Elena. It lies along a former glacial valley that is now a river valley, with the village rising on both sides of it. The headwater section of this stretch, known as the Ribera de Biescas, is protected as a special area of conservation (ZEC) for its environmental value.
Curiosity
Ainielle is a depopulated village of the Sobrepuerto, in the Alto Gállego district, now part of the municipality of Biescas, at 1,355 metres above sea level. Documented since 1062 in the records of Huesca cathedral, it was its own municipality until losing that status between 1857 and 1860; it gradually lost population from the 1960s, when its land was sold to the Patrimonio Forestal del Estado, until becoming uninhabited in 1971, when its last resident left the Casa O Rufo. It inspired the novel La lluvia amarilla, by Julio Llamazares. Its ruins can be visited and preserve the church of San Juan Evangelista, from the 17th-18th centuries, the Casa O Rufo, from the 18th century, a restored mill from 1763, and El Castillón, a defensive settlement from the 10th-11th centuries.
Activity
Patron saint festivities of Biescas from 14 to 18 August in honour of Santa Elena, with a chupinazo rocket, a parade of floats and fire bulls. On 13 June the pilgrimage of San Antonio, patron of the town, is held, with a cheese competition from the Tena valley.
Monument
Biescas preserves two hermitages: that of Santa Elena, from the 17th century at the entrance to the valle de Tena, in a space held sacred since the Neolithic and rebuilt in 1253 by order of Jaime I; and that of the Virgen de la Collada, of medieval origin with a 16th-17th-century fabric, in the barrio de San Pedro.
Activity
The Feria de Otoño de Biescas is held on the fourth weekend of October; it revives a fair concession documented since 1633 and, brought back in 1993, combines livestock auctions with a cheese competition bringing together producers from Aragón, southern France and the rest of Spain, coinciding with the descent of livestock from the Pyrenean passes.
Monument
The plaza Mayor and the town hall of Biescas form, as described in its Wikipedia article, an urban ensemble with a mountain flavour.
Nature
Viewpoint known as the Balcón de Pirineos, in the municipal district of Biescas.
Monument
The Puente del Diablo of Biescas, over the river Gállego, is attributed to the architect Juan Albistur in 1559 and formed part of the royal road linking Biescas with Santa Elena; legend has it that the devil himself built it in a single night.
Curiosity
The Alto Gállego (Huesca) combines mountain livestock-farming tradition, especially alive in the municipalities in the south of the comarca, together with agrotourism, with ski tourism in its Pyrenean valleys: it has two resorts, Formigal, in Sallent de Gállego, and Panticosa. Tourism and services are today the comarca's main economic activity, which has seen strong growth in second homes, hotels and rural tourism. Its territory also contains the Sierra y los Cañones de Guara nature park and the Glaciares Pirenaicos natural monument.
Historical milestone
A sudden flood of the ravine swept ten-ton boulders in 1996 onto the alluvial fan where a campsite had been authorized: 87 people died, 27 of them children, and another 183 were injured in barely a few minutes.
Historical milestone
French Huguenot troops crossed the frontier in 1592, entered the valley and sacked Biescas. The episode decided Philip II to fortify the pass with the fort of Santa Elena, designed by the engineer Tiburcio Spannocchi.
Historical milestone
The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation expropriated houses and lands for the Gállego reservoir and the village of Búbal was left definitively empty in 1971; since 1984 it has been refurbished within the state programme of abandoned villages.
Food and drink
Artisan cheeses made with raw sheep's and cow's milk from the flocks and herds of the valley, cured in a natural chamber and of intense aroma; they are sold at the autumn fair alongside jams and preserves of the comarca.