Village
Fonz is a seigneurial town in the comarca of Cinca Medio, in the province of Huesca, situated south of the outer Pyrenean ranges, at an altitude of 471 metres, near the Aragón y Cataluña Canal and 15 kilometres from Monzón. Besides the main settlement, it includes the town of Cofita, and has 886 inhabitants. Its name comes from the Latin fontes, owing to the abundance of springs in its municipal area, among which a public fountain with six spouts in Renaissance style, dated 1567, stands out. In its territory several Bronze Age and Iron Age sites have been found, such as Tozal de la Manzana and La Gaya, occupied for their strategic position over the Fonz plain. The town preserves a notable group of houses bearing coats of arms.
Monument
The historic-artistic ensemble of Fonz, declared a Monumento Histórico Artístico (Spain's highest level of heritage protection before the creation of the Bien de Interés Cultural) in 1976, forms an ensemble of great interest within Upper Aragonese civil architecture, centred on its Plaza Mayor and Renaissance core. There stands the six-spout fountain, built in 1567, of classicist design and one of the most monumental in Aragon. The Renaissance town hall dates from the early 16th century, was the summer residence of the bishops of Lérida and today houses, on its top floor, a Renaissance interpretation centre. The ensemble preserves eleven noble houses, a reflection of old hidalgo families, among them the 16th-century palace of the Gómez Alba family and the Casa Ric, from 1613, as well as the Renaissance parish church, built between 1606 and 1617.
Monument
The Valdeolivos Palace, also called Ric House, is a manor house in Fonz (Cinca Medio, Huesca) built in 1613, one of the great Renaissance palaces of the town with the most manor houses of this style in Aragón. It houses the archive-library of the barons of Valdeolivos, with documentation spanning from 1242 to the 20th century. Inside, rooms decorated with trompe-l'oeil are preserved, such as the bedroom of Pedro María Ric, which tradition attributes to the painter friar Manuel Bayeu y Subías.
Monument
Renaissance manor house on the main square of Fonz, with a gallery of 37 windows on its façade and the Bardaxí coat of arms above the main door; a side heraldic stone is dated 1567. Pedro Cerbuna, founder of the University of Zaragoza, was born here in 1538.
Monument
Manor house in Fonz opposite the church, with an ashlar façade on the ground floor and Aragonese brick on the rest, topped by a gallery of round-arched windows and the family coat of arms above the door. In 2023 it was refurbished as a business incubator centre.
Monument
The parish church of Fonz, dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, stands at the top of the town, above the arcaded Plaza Mayor of this town in Huesca province. Built, already in the 17th century, between 1606 and 1617 in Renaissance style, it has a three-nave plan covered with star vaults, a polygonal apse and a choir at the foot. In ashlar masonry, its portico on the south façade stands out, with a large moulded round arch flanked by fluted Doric pilasters, and the tower attached to the apse, with three decreasing octagonal tiers.
Activity
A fair showcasing the Renaissance monumental heritage of Fonz.
Activity
Main festivities of Fonz on 15 August, for la Asunción, patroness of the parish church; on 3 February San Blas, patron of the village, is celebrated with a bonfire and a climb up the greasy pole after the rooster, and on 5 February Santa Águeda, with a women's mule ride.
Activity
Fonz honours San Blas, its patron saint, on 3 February: on the eve a bonfire is lit that burns all night with the residents gathered round, and on the day of the festival people climb the polished, soaped poplar pole topped with a rooster. The women hold a separate gathering of their own for Santa Águeda.
Curiosity
Fonz (Cinca Medio, Huesca) preserves eleven noble houses that reflect the town's Renaissance legacy, grouped around the arcaded plaza Mayor, declared a historic-artistic monument in 1976. Notable is the Gómez Alba palace, from the 16th century, with a lower stone section and upper brick floors, which has been a seminary, convent and school, and is today a home for the elderly. Also outstanding is the Casa Ric, built in 1613, with lunette vaults, eighteenth-century doorways and painted halls attributed to friar Manuel Bayeu, today home to the Archive-Library of the Barons of Valdeolivos. The ensemble is completed by other residences such as the Guilleuma, Camón, Moner, Fiscal, Montroset, Bardaxí and Carpi houses, in Renaissance and plateresque style.
Monument
The Casa Ric de Fonz is the palacio de Valdeolivos, one of the town's great Renaissance palaces; the town has more noble houses in this style than any other in Aragón, and the ensemble of the plaza Mayor of Fonz is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural.
Activity
Fonz's winter patron saint is actually San Blas, on 3 February, with a bonfire and a climb up the greasy pole; the bonfire of San Antón, on 17 January, is a custom shared with other villages of the Cinca Medio.
Monument
Town hall of Fonz (Cinca Medio, Huesca), a Renaissance building constructed in the early years of the 16th century. It was the summer residence of the bishops of Lleida until the disentailment of church property, and today houses the town hall. Its main façade is arranged over three floors, and the top one holds a Renaissance interpretation centre, recalling the building's seigneurial past.
Nature
Fonz, at 471 m between the sierra de Guara and the plain of the Cinca, is a Bien de Interés Cultural as a historic-artistic site. Chosen as a resting place by the bishops of Lérida in the 16th century, it experienced a small Renaissance court with notable palaces, among them that of the barons of Valdeolivos and the episcopal one, today home to the Centro de Interpretación del Renacimiento.
Historical milestone
Bishops and noble families chose the town of the springs as a summer residence, which filled its streets with Renaissance and Plateresque ancestral houses and with the monumental fountain dated 1567.
Historical milestone
Ramón Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona and Prince of Aragón between 1131 and 1162, brought Fonz into Christian rule and initially ceded it to the Knights Templar; later it remained under the lordship of the bishops of Lérida for centuries.
Food and drink
The olive groves of the slopes of the municipal district, which gave their name to the title of baron of Valdeolivos, are milled between November and January to obtain a green and slightly pungent oil that is tasted on toasted bread.