Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Gallocanta

What to see and do in Gallocanta (Campo de Daroca, Zaragoza): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Gallocanta

Lagoon of Gallocanta 50 m
Church of Gallocanta 50 m

Towns near Gallocanta

What to see in Berrueco 3.4 km · 2 places
What to see in Santed 4.2 km · 2 places
What to see in Las Cuerlas 5.3 km · 2 places
What to see in Castejón de Tornos 6.7 km · 1 place
What to see in Tornos 7.2 km · 1 place
What to see in Used 8.2 km · 5 places
What to see in Val de San Martín 8.6 km · 2 places
What to see in Bello 8.7 km · 3 places

Spain › Aragon › Zaragoza › Campo de Daroca › Gallocanta

What to see and do in Gallocanta

Gallocanta
Village
Gallocanta is a municipality in the comarca of Campo de Daroca, in the province of Zaragoza, with 128 inhabitants (INE 2025), situated near the border with Teruel, at 1,011 metres above sea level. About 300 metres away lies the laguna de Gallocanta, the largest endorheic lagoon in the Iberian Peninsula, covering 14.4 km² with a usual depth of 45 to 50 centimetres; declared a Zona de Especial Protección para las Aves (Special Protection Area for Birds, an EU designation for bird conservation) in 1987, it is every winter a wintering ground for large concentrations of common cranes, as well as diving ducks and coots. An interpretation centre was opened there in 2010. Conquered by Alfonso I the Battler around 1120, Gallocanta was for more than a hundred years merely a district of Daroca, until in 1248 James I recognised its status as a village of the Daroca community.
Lagoon of Gallocanta
Nature
The Gallocanta lagoon is the largest natural endorheic lagoon on the Iberian Peninsula, situated between the comarcas of Campo de Daroca and Jiloca, on the boundary of the provinces of Zaragoza and Teruel, next to the municipality of Gallocanta. It covers an area of 1,924 hectares, with a further 4,553 hectares of protected peripheral zone, a maximum length of 7 kilometres and a width of 2, and an average depth of barely 70 centimetres. Its waters, of underground origin, have a salinity ten times higher than that of the sea, so that in the dry season salt crusts form on its shores. Declared a nature reserve in 2006, it is a winter refuge for tens of thousands of cranes.
Church of Gallocanta
Monument
Church of San Pedro, built at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, probably consecrated in 1735 according to the date carved on the façade; it has three naves with barrel vaults on Corinthian pilasters and a domed crossing. It reuses ashlar blocks from the old castle of Gallocanta.
Gallocanta Crane Reserve
Curiosity
The Gallocanta lagoon, between the provinces of Zaragoza and Teruel, is the largest natural lagoon on the Iberian Peninsula and, together with that of Fuente de Piedra, one of the largest salt lagoons in Europe, covering 1,924 hectares plus a further 4,553 of protected peripheral zone. Enclosed in an endorheic basin between the sierras of Santa Cruz, Pardos, Menera and Caldereros, its waters come from underground streams and reach a salinity ten times higher than that of the sea, with salt crusts on the shores during dry periods. Declared a managed nature reserve in 2006, the lagoon hosts every autumn and winter one of the largest concentrations of common cranes in Europe, as well as diving ducks and coots that use it as a wintering, stopover or breeding area.
Sesma (district) of the Campo de Gallocanta
Historical milestone
Since the 1248 privilege granted by Jaime I de Aragón, the town headed the sesma de Gallocanta, one of the five sesmas or original administrative divisions of the Comunidad de Aldeas de Daroca, in force until the creation of the present-day provinces of Zaragoza and Teruel in 1838. It included, among other places, Anento, Báguena, Bello, Berrueco, Manchones, Murero, Santed, Used and Villarroya del Campo. Its castle, now gone, overlooked the whole lake basin on the disputed border between Aragon and Castile.