Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Calatayud

What to see and do in Calatayud (Comunidad de Calatayud, Zaragoza): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 3 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Calatayud

Towns near Calatayud

Spain › Aragon › Zaragoza › Comunidad de Calatayud › Calatayud

What to see and do in Calatayud

Calatayud
Village
Calatayud, capital of the Comunidad de Calatayud comarca (Zaragoza), stands beside the Jalón river and has 20,158 inhabitants, the fourth most populous municipality in Aragon. Its name comes from the Arabic Qal'at Ayyub, a city founded by an Andalusi emir and conquered in 1120 by Alfonso I the Battler. It preserves the oldest fortified Arab enclosure on the peninsula, dating from the 9th century, with five castles linked by walls, and it had a Jewish quarter almost as large as that of Zaragoza. Its Mudéjar heritage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, has as its main piece the collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor, with a 70-metre octagonal tower from the 16th century. It also preserves the Puerta de Terrer and a bullring from 1877, the second-largest in capacity in Aragon.
Collegiate Church of Santa María, Calatayud
Monument
The Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor, also called de Mediavilla because of its location in the centre of the medieval town, is the main church of Calatayud and a masterpiece of Aragonese Mudéjar, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. According to tradition it was built over the former main mosque, purified after the conquest by Alfonso I the Battler in 1120, a hypothesis supported by archaeological finds beneath the current apse. A Romanesque church replaced it in 1249, and after suffering damage in the War of the Two Pedros it was rebuilt between the late 14th and early 15th centuries under the patronage of Pope Luna, incorporating the Mudéjar tradition. From that period the cloister and the lower sections of the apse and the tower, more than 70 metres high, are preserved.
Roman site of Bílbilis
Nature
Celtiberian city of the Lusones that Augustus raised to a municipium with the name Augusta Bilbilis. It preserves a forum, a theatre for some 4,500 spectators and baths decorated by Italic workshops. It went into decline in the second century and was left depopulated in the third.
Castle of Ayyub
Monument
Andalusi fortified enclosure raised in the 8th century, which gave the city its name, Qal'at Ayyub or castle of Ayyub, and one of the oldest Islamic complexes preserved in the peninsula. It groups several castles linked by stretches of wall over the hills that dominate the Jalón.
Old garnachas of the Calatayud DO
Food and drink
Designation of origin recognised in 1990 that covers vineyards of 46 municipalities spread over the valleys of the Jiloca, Perejiles, Mesa, Manubles and Ribota. Close to 80% of the vines lie between 650 and 900 metres of altitude and garnacha occupies 62% of the area.
Bilbilitan-style ternasco
Food and drink
Lamb of native Aragonese breeds, slaughtered between seventy and a hundred days of age, which here is marinated with garlic, bay leaf and thyme and roasted slowly on a bed of baker's potatoes. The ternasco has held a protected geographical indication since 1999.
Chickpeas with conger eel
Food and drink
Fast-day stew with centuries of roots in the city, made with dried conger eel brought from the coast and rehydrated, chickpeas and potato. Conger eel a la bilbilitana is one of the marks of the local cooking and recalls the old trade in salted fish inland.