Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Torla

What to see and do in Torla (Sobrarbe, Huesca): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Torla

Church of Torla 50 m
Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park 15 km

Towns near Torla

What to see in Broto 2.7 km · 4 places
What to see in Fanlo 8.7 km · 5 places
What to see in Yésero 11 km · 5 places
What to see in Fiscal 15 km · 4 places
What to see in Biescas 17 km · 16 places
What to see in Hoz de Jaca 17 km · 6 places
What to see in Panticosa 18 km · 12 places
What to see in Yebra de Basa 21 km · 8 places

Spain › Aragon › Huesca › Sobrarbe › Torla

What to see and do in Torla

Torla
Village
Torla, now Torla-Ordesa, is a town in Sobrarbe, in the province of Huesca, that gives access to the valle de Ordesa and the parque nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido, at the confluence of the valles glaciares de Bujaruelo y Ordesa, through which the río Ara flows, one of the few rivers of any size in Spain with no dam along its entire course. Documented since 1076, its history was marked by its position on the border with the French county of Bigorra: it suffered serious raids from the inhabitants of the valle de Baregés in 1319 and, above all, in 1512, after which it reinforced the castle whose remains, alongside the Cripta de San Jorge, can still be seen. On the very rock where the old fortress once stood, the village's Romanesque church was later built, beneath which the road now runs through a tunnel.
Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park
Nature
Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park occupies the Pyrenees of Huesca, in the Sobrarbe comarca, and spreads its area across the municipalities of Broto, Bielsa, Fanlo, Puértolas, Tella-Sin and Torla-Ordesa. Its 15,608 hectares, with a further peripheral protection zone of 19,679 hectares, range from 700 metres by the Bellós river to the 3348 metres of Monte Perdido. Declared in 1918 as the Ordesa Valley, it is Spain's second-oldest national park; in 1982 it was expanded and took its current name. Later protection designations added include Biosphere Reserve (1977), Special Protection Area for Birds (1988) and Unesco World Heritage Site (1997). It receives an average of more than 600,000 visitors a year, placing it among the most visited in the country.
Church of Torla
Monument
The church of Torla, in Romanesque style, stands on a great rock overlooking the valley, on the spot where it is believed there once stood the defensive tower that gives the town its name, built against incursions from France since the time of John II of Aragon, in the 15th century. The present-day road crosses the rock through a tunnel that runs just beneath the church. Nearby are preserved the remains of Torla castle, reinforced after the raids suffered by the town in the 14th and 15th centuries, including that of 1512, which led the townspeople to build the defences whose ruins can be seen today, together with those of the so-called Cripta de San Jorge.
Festivities of Torla
Activity
Torla celebrates its patron saint festivities in honour of the Virgen del Pilar on 12 October, with the traditional dances of the Palotiau, the Jota Torlesa and the Repatán — the latter unique to the Pyrenees — during the procession.
The declaration of the Ordesa Valley National Park
Historical milestone
A royal decree signed by Alfonso XIII created in 1918 the second national park in Spain, weeks after that of Covadonga, to protect the valley carved by the river Arazas; today it is the core of Ordesa and Monte Perdido.