Village
Benasque is a Pyrenean town in Ribagorza, in the province of Huesca, head of the valley of the same name, also called the Hidden Valley, and the gateway to the Aneto peak, within the Posets-Maladeta natural park. It sits by the Ésera river, at 1138 m; within its territory are the villages of Cerler, with its ski slopes, and Anciles. Probably founded by the Romans, who are believed to have built the first sulphurous water baths there, its oldest documentary reference, the Rótulo de Benasque, dates from 1006 to 1018; from the 11th century it belonged to the county of Ribagorza. A 13th-century castle once stood above the village, demolished in 1858, and during the civil war a fire destroyed much of the town. It has 2359 inhabitants (INE 2025), after a low of 574 in 1970.
Nature
The Aneto is the highest peak in the Pyrenees and the second-highest in the Iberian Peninsula, at 3,404 metres of altitude, situated in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, in the municipality of Benasque (Huesca). It forms part of the Maladeta massif, in the Benasque valley, and is made up of Palaeozoic granite terrain and Mesozoic materials. On its north face, from around 2,810 metres, extends the largest glacier in the Pyrenees, with close to 100 hectares of surface area, which over the last century has lost more than half its extent due to climate change and could disappear within three or four decades.
Nature
The Posets-Maladeta Natural Park extends across the north of the Ribagorza comarca and the northeast of Sobrarbe, in the province of Huesca, covering the municipalities of Benasque, Gistaín, Montanuy, Sahún and San Juan de Plan. Declared in 1994, it occupies more than 33,000 hectares between 1,500 and the 3,404 metres of the Aneto, the highest peak in the Pyrenees, along with other summits such as the Posets, the Punta de Astorg or the Pico Maldito. It is home to the main Pyrenean glaciers, as well as moraines and glacial lakes such as those of Vallibierna, Cregüeña or Batisielles. At lower altitude grow rowans, hazels and birches, and higher up beeches, firs and mountain pine, among marmots, chamois, bearded vultures and golden eagles.
Monument
Parish church of Benasque, dedicated to the Asunción de la Virgen María although San Marcial is venerated as its patron, at the gateway to the Maladeta massif. Already documented in the 11th century, it received Gothic alterations in the 12th and 13th centuries and, after the War of the Spanish Succession, the presbytery and dome were rebuilt in Baroque style; in the 17th century the apse was demolished and the transept and tower were raised. It thus combines Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque elements, with a Latin-cross floor plan, four chapels on the Gospel side and three on the Epistle side, and a doorway decorated with the figure of San Marcial. A fire left it almost destroyed in 1925, and during the Civil War its historic bells were thrown down from the tower. It is listed as Patrimonio Cultural Aragonés (a heritage listing of the regional government of Aragón).
Nature
A Pyrenean valley occupying the upper stretch of the Ésera river basin, in the Ribagorza, closed to the south by the Congosto de Ventamillo, where the river cuts through the Chía and Turbón mountain ranges. It is structured in three stretches spread across seven municipalities and twenty-six localities, and at its northern head rise the valley's three great massifs, the Maladeta, the Posets and the Perdiguero, home to the highest peaks in the Pyrenees, among them the Aneto, at 3,404 metres, and most of the Pyrenean glaciers, the only ones in Spain. From these massifs descend the valleys of Estós, Eriste and Vallibierna, with lakes and waterfalls amid alpine meadows and forests, protected as the Posets-Maladeta natural park and with refuges such as that of Ángel Orús or of the Renclusa.
Nature
Massif containing the Aneto, the roof of the Pyrenees, on the northern edge of La Ribagorza, in the central part of the range, slightly south of the watershed. To the north opens the head of the Benasque valley and to the south descends the Vallibierna valley. Its highest peak, Aneto, reaches 3,403.5 metres, and alongside it rise other summits over three thousand metres such as La Maladeta, Pico Maldito, Pico de Coronas and Pico Russell. On its northern face lies the Aneto glacier, the largest in the Pyrenees though in retreat, like the rest of the Pyrenean glaciers, and further down lies the Renclusa refuge, at 2,149 metres of altitude, the highest habitable point on the massif.
Activity
Patronal festivities of Benasque, in the Huesca comarca of the Ribagorza, held on 30 June in honour of San Marcial. On that day the Ball dels Omes is danced, a traditional dance in which the men, with castanets adorned with coloured ribbons, accompany the procession bearing the saint's image and perform a choreography in formation around the linden tree in the centre of the square. The following day, 1 July, the Ball de les Dones is held, of similar structure but danced in mixed couples and without a procession. Both dances are accompanied by the Himno de Riego, a tune traditionally associated with the festivities of this Pyrenean municipality.
Historical milestone
The Russian soldier Platon de Tchihatcheff and the Norman botanist Albert de Franqueville, with four Pyrenean guides, reached in 1842 for the first time the highest summit of the Pyrenees, of 3,404 meters, above the Benasque valley.
Food and drink
With the milk of the cows and sheep that graze the high pastures of the Maladeta massif, pressed-curd cheeses are made, cured in a natural chamber, and sold in the markets and fairs of the valley.