Village
Fayón (Faió), in the Bajo Aragón-Caspe, was for centuries, not far from the ancient Octogesa, a village of Ebro boatmen: the river route linking Zaragoza with Tortosa and the Mediterranean had passed through here since Roman times, with boats called llaguts up to 20 metres long, one of which, the Cardenal, is preserved awaiting a museum. The railway, from 1892, made it a key point for transporting coal from the mines of Fayón and Mequinenza to Catalonia. The Ribarroja reservoir flooded the old town in 1967, which went from 1,683 inhabitants in 1960 to just 601 in 1970, along with the old station; the new village, at 92 metres, was designed by the architect José Borobio, and the tower of the old church still rises above the reservoir.
Monument
Tower of the old village of Fayón, which rises above the waters of the Ribarroja reservoir, on the river Ebro, after the relocation of the population. In 1967, the filling of the reservoir flooded the old centre of the municipality, forcing a new village to be built; the tower of the old church remained as visible testimony of the vanished village, still standing above the waters today.
Nature
Reservoir on the river Ebro, between Aragon and Catalonia, whose dam is located at Ribarroja d'Ebre (Ribera d'Ebre) and whose waters, almost 40 kilometres long, also extend across the municipalities of la Pobla de Massaluca, Fayón — where it receives the river Matarraña — and Mequinenza. The reservoir flooded the old village of Fayón in 1967, along with its railway station, then key for transporting coal from the mines of Fayón and Mequinenza; the inhabitants were rehoused in the new Fayón, and the new station was moved to the other side of the provincial boundary. The reservoir, covering 2,152 hectares with 210 hm³, supplies drinking water to Batea, Vilalba dels Arcs and la Pobla de Massaluca, and its hydroelectric plant has a capacity of 262.8 MW.
Activity
The patron saint festivities of Fayón (Bajo Aragón-Caspe, Zaragoza) are held in the new village, built in the second half of the 20th century to rehouse the roughly one thousand inhabitants of old Fayón, flooded in 1967 when the Ribarroja reservoir was opened, which also covered Mequinenza. The new village was designed by the Zaragoza architect José Borobio.
Curiosity
Present-day Fayón was built on higher ground after the old village was flooded by the Ribarroja and Mequinenza reservoirs; the tower of the old Pilar hermitage still rises above the water.
Activity
San Antón festival in Fayón.
Nature
The present-day Fayón is the successor to the village of the same name flooded by the embalse de Ribarroja, whose waters reached the village on the night of 18 November 1967 without prior warning. The area's most iconic image is the tower of the Renaissance church of San Juan Evangelista, begun in the late 16th century, which still emerges from the water and can today be visited by boat.
Monument
The present-day town hall of Fayón is part of the new village designed by the architect José Borobio after the embalse de Ribarroja flooded the old town in 1967; the population went from about sixteen hundred households in 1960 to just over six hundred ten years later.
Monument
The hermitage of the Virgin of the Pilar of Fayón was built in 1954, on a rise near the old village, to a design by José Rodríguez Mijares, taking advantage of the plenary indulgence of that year's Marian Holy Year. Its interior is decorated with frescoes on Marian themes, the work of María Pilar Burges Aznar, José Gumí Cardona and Juan Baldellou Celma. In 1967 the filling of the Ribarroja reservoir flooded the old village, which forced the construction of two new population centers.
Activity
San Blas festival in Fayón.
Activity
Autumn fair of Fayón, beside the Ribarroja reservoir.
Historical milestone
The old Fayón lived from river transport on llaguts, the barges that came down the Ebro from Roman times. The arrival of the railway in 1892 gave an outlet to the coal of the surrounding mines and made the village a communications hub.
Historical milestone
The opening of the Riba-roja reservoir in 1967 flooded the old quarter and made it necessary to build a new village, designed by the architect José Borobio. The population went from some one thousand six hundred households in 1960 to little more than six hundred ten years later.
Food and drink
In the Catalan-speaking villages of the lower Ebro a baking tradition of their own survives: pastissets filled with angel-hair squash jam or with quince and sugared oil coques. They are made for the patron saint festivities and for family celebrations.