Village
Jaca is the historic capital of the comarca of La Jacetania, in the Pyrenees of Huesca, with around 14,000 inhabitants and an extensive municipal area of 392 km² that groups together numerous rural districts. The city stands on a plateau at 820 metres of altitude, beside the Aragón river, in the middle Upper Aragon depression between the inner mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, with elevations ranging from the 2,197 metres of the Punta de La Espata to the 670 metres on the banks of the river itself. To the north extend the sierra of San Juan de la Peña and the Peña Oroel (1,770 m). Its climate, oceanic-continental with inland nuances, records winters below -10 °C and summers exceeding 35 °C. It preserves the first Romanesque cathedral in Spain and the military Ciudadela.
Monument
The cathedral of San Pedro de Jaca, seat of the diocese of the same name, is one of the oldest and most characteristic Romanesque buildings in Spain: construction began almost at the same time as the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in the last quarter of the 11th century, on the initiative of King Sancho Ramírez, who in 1068 had placed his kingdom under vassalage to the pope and obtained in exchange the episcopal see for Jaca. The city received its city fuero from Sancho Ramírez himself in 1077 and was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon until 1096, when, after the conquest of Huesca, that city regained its former status as capital. The cathedral's construction, whose architect is unknown, took place in two stages, between 1077 and 1082 and between 1104 and 1130, and it served as a model for other churches on the Camino de Santiago.
Monument
The Ciudadela of Jaca, known until the 19th century as the castle of San Pedro, is a bastioned fortress of pentagonal plan and Italian design located in this city in Huesca. It was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (a former heritage-protection category in Spain) on 28 June 1951 and restored in 1968. One of its pavilions houses the Museo de Miniaturas Militares, with 23 dioramas bringing together more than 35,000 lead figures about two centimetres tall that recreate battle scenes from Ancient Egypt to the present day, with special attention to Spanish military history. In 2021 the Sala de Batallas was also opened, with works donated to the State by Pedro Ramón y Cajal. The Ciudadela was used by the army until 2008, when it passed to be managed by the town council.
Monument
The Clock Tower of Jaca, also known as the Prison Tower, is a Gothic civil building constructed in 1445 after the fire that devastated the city around 1440, as a provisional solution while the cathedral and its prison facilities were being rebuilt. It was promoted by Canon Jorge Lasieso and financed by the Lasala family. Rectangular in plan and very slender, with an entrance door under a round arch on its north face, it came to be used as the residence of the merino, the royal official in charge of collecting taxes in the city, for which reason it was also known as the Tower or Palace of the Merino. In 1599 the Concejo de Jaca bought it to install the clock and bell tower, and in 1602 turned it into the city's prison.
Nature
The Aragón river rises in the glacial cirque of the Astún valley, in the municipal district of Jaca (La Jacetania, Huesca), at about 2,050 metres of altitude, fed by the Escalar and Truchas glacial lakes (ibones). From its source it flows from north to south through the Aragón or Canfranc valley until it reaches Jaca, where its course turns west towards Navarre. The Collarada, the highest peak in the area at 2,886 metres, dominates the basin, and heavy snowfall causes major floods in spring, added to those of autumn. The strongly oceanic character of the climate favours the beech and fir forests typical of the high Pyrenean valleys.
Activity
Festival of National Tourist Interest that re-enacts the legendary victory of count Aznar Galíndez over a Muslim army in the year 758, with hundreds of local people in period dress.
Curiosity
Traditional breakfast of cured meats, ribs and migas that opens the Jaca festival of the First Friday of May, in which Jaca commemorates the legendary battle of the Llanos de la Victoria, which tradition places around the year 760 on the outskirts of the city, when Count Aznar is said to have repelled a Muslim attack. The day begins with a lunch at the Llano de la Victoria itself, the scene of the battle according to legend, and from midday a parade with a historical procession is held through the streets of Jaca. The festival was declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico (Festival of Tourist Interest, an official Spanish tourism designation) in 1980.
Activity
Jaca's festival is held in the city to which Sancho Ramírez granted a fuero in 1077, and where in 1930 the captains Fermín Galán and Ángel García Hernández proclaimed the Republic from the town hall balcony before being shot two days later.
Activity
Jaca's winter festival is held in the city where in 1071 the monks of San Juan de la Peña sang the first Roman-rite liturgy in Hispania, promoted by Sancho Ramírez.
Activity
The Mercado Medieval de Jaca is held at the end of September, coinciding with the veranillo de San Miguel (Saint Michael's little summer), as part of the festival 'Jaca, Reino y Leyenda', with jousts, historical re-enactments and craft stalls in the main squares of the historic centre; it draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Historical milestone
Ramiro I gathered in Jaca eight bishops from the two slopes of the Pyrenees under the presidency of the archbishop of Auch; the synod restored the old bishopric of Huesca with a provisional seat in Jaca, which kept it until 1096.
Historical milestone
In the monastery of San Juan de la Peña the monks sang in 1071 the sext hour according to the Roman rite instead of the Hispano-Mozarabic one. It was the first Roman liturgy in Hispania, promoted by Sancho Ramírez and the legates of pope Alexander II.
Historical milestone
Sancho Ramírez granted Jaca a brief fuero of some twenty-four provisions in 1077, turning it into a city and capital of the kingdom and attracting Frankish settlers along the Way of Saint James; its text later spread through Aragon and Navarre. Originally drafted in Latin, now lost, it survives as the oldest known copy of a fuero in a Romance language, in a variant that Mauricio Molho published in 1964. Its purpose was to free the settlers from bad fueros and confirm the good ones already requested, as part of the policy of attracting a Frankish population along the Somport-Jaca-Sangüesa-Estella route. Expanded by local jurists and confirmed several times by the kings, it gave rise to a school of Romance-language compilations and served as the basis for the Fueros de Aragón of 1247.
Historical milestone
On 12 December 1930, during the dictablanda of General Berenguer, captains Fermín Galán and Ángel García Hernández rose up with the Jaca garrison at dawn and proclaimed the Republic from the balcony of the town hall, where the first republican mayor's office was appointed as a sign of its strictly civilian character. Two military columns, led by Galán and by captain Salvador Sediles, set out for Huesca, the provincial capital. On 14 December a court martial sentenced Galán and García Hernández to death, and they were shot, while Sediles was pardoned in the face of popular mobilizations. Months later, after the elections of 12 April, Alfonso XIII went into exile and the Republic was proclaimed; the Jaca rebels were then publicly recognized as martyrs.
Food and drink
A winter stew of the comarca's valleys, made slowly with boliches, pork rib and pig's cheek and vegetables from the huerta. It is served as a single course and has been revived at the gastronomic days of the Jacetania.
Food and drink
The baking of Jaca preserves pieces of its own such as the jaqueses, the lazos, the corazones, the patatas de Jaca and the coronitas de Santa Orosia, made with puff pastry, almond and egg yolk in the city's workshops.