Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Novallas

What to see and do in Novallas (Tarazona y el Moncayo, Zaragoza): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 2 Activities · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Novallas

Church of Novallas 50 m
Hermitage of Novallas 50 m

Towns near Novallas

What to see in Monteagudo 1.9 km · 3 places
What to see in Malón 2.1 km · 6 places
What to see in Vierlas 2.5 km · 3 places
What to see in Tulebras 3.6 km · 3 places
What to see in Barillas 3.8 km · 2 places
What to see in Tarazona 5.3 km · 18 places
What to see in Ablitas 5.5 km · 6 places
What to see in Cascante 6 km · 6 places

Spain › Aragon › Zaragoza › Tarazona y el Moncayo › Novallas

What to see and do in Novallas

Novallas
Village
Novallas is a municipality in the comarca of Tarazona y el Moncayo, in Zaragoza, in the valleys of the Queiles and its tributary the Naón, 88 km from the provincial capital. Documented since 1119–1120 as Novalias, its name comes from the Latin novalia, “fallow lands.” A Roman villa in its territory yielded the Bronze of Novallas, a 1st-century-BC plaque with a Celtiberian inscription in Latin script. The urban centre and the network of irrigation channels watering the orchards are the work of the Moors, who remained here until the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1610; it is believed the church was previously a mosque and the castle a Muslim fortress. Taken around 1119 by Alfonso I the Battler, the castle later passed to the Templars, of whom a cross carved in the apse remains. Today the village holds a bull-running event on foot, an encierro.
Church of Novallas
Monument
Church of San Marcial in Novallas, of Romanesque origin in the apse and first bay, remodelled in the 16th and 17th centuries; it preserves a Templar cross carved on the outside of the apse.
Walking Bull Run of Novallas
Activity
A traditional encierro of fighting cattle run on foot, held every 15 September during the Fiestas de la Cruz [Feast of the Cross] of Novallas (Zaragoza) and declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico de Aragón (official Spanish designation for festivals of tourist interest) in 2000. The event dates back to the 18th century, when the village's festival committee had to go on foot to fetch cattle for the encierros from neighbouring towns; the tradition was lost in 1956, with the arrival of trucks, and was revived in 1983 by releasing young cows outside the town centre so that they would run into it, although after years of incidents it was banned in 1999 and was not reinstated until the early 2000s. The route sets off at eight in the morning from the corrals, and the cattle, guided by young men, horses and tame bulls, cross the town centre to the Plaza de San Antón.
Hermitage of Novallas
Monument
Hermitage in the municipal district of Novallas, where a 1st-century-BC bronze plaque was found bearing Celtiberian text in Latin script, an exceptional find for the study of the pre-Roman languages of the Ebro valley. Its Morisco community, who maintained the irrigation channels of the Queiles, was expelled in 1610.
Festivities of invierno de Novallas
Activity
Novallas's winter festival is held in the village of the encierro andando, a traditional running of fighting bulls on foot, in whose district a 1st-century-BC bronze plaque with Celtiberian text in Latin script was found.
The Celtiberian bronze of Novallas
Historical milestone
At the Chicharroya III site, in the district of Novallas, a fragment of a bronze plaque dated to the second half of the 1st century BC was found by chance. It preserves eleven lines and around forty words, probably arranged in columns, engraved in the Latin alphabet in an Indo-European Paleohispanic language, almost certainly Celtiberian; it may be an official, public text whose content cannot be determined for now. It is an exceptional find because it shows a loanword from Latin into that language -the word publicus appears four times- and a new sign, a marked S that would indicate a fricative or affricate sound, one of the oldest known cases of the adaptation of the Latin alphabet to a Paleohispanic language. There were Roman farming villas in the area.
Expulsion of the Moriscos from the somontano
Historical milestone
The Mudéjar and later Morisco community of Novallas maintained and extended the system of irrigation channels of the Queiles until the expulsion decree of 1610 emptied the place of almost three hundred households. The loss of labour ruined the irrigated agriculture.
Rancho stew of the Moncayo
Food and drink
Cauldron stew that brings together pork, hare or rabbit with potato and seasonal vegetables, and which in some versions incorporates lamb and snails. It was cooked for the work gangs in the fields and today is served at the festive meals of the foothills.