Village
Tarazona, the ancient Turiaso, is the capital of the comarca of Tarazona y el Moncayo, in the province of Zaragoza, the episcopal see of the diocese of Tarazona since at least the year 449. Situated in the middle valley of the Queiles river, in border territory between Castile, Navarre and Aragon, it was in the Middle Ages a leading commercial, diplomatic and religious centre, the setting for royal weddings, pacts and Cortes. Its pre-Roman founding and its early episcopal see shaped a monumental old town, where Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities lived side by side. The upper districts of San Miguel, La Almehora and El Cinto preserve the medieval layout girded by the town wall. The capital of the comarca, with its cathedral and historic centre, it is famous for the festival of the Cipotegato.
Monument
Cathedral of Santa María de la Huerta of Tarazona (Zaragoza), whose construction began in the 12th century and which was consecrated in 1232. It combines Gothic, Mudejar, Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is one of the few Mudejar cathedrals in Spain. The cloister, of quadrangular plan, was built in brick and plaster in Mudejar style during the 16th century, and the dome (cimborio) was the work of Juan Lucas Botero between 1543 and 1545. Declared a Monumento Histórico Artístico (a former heritage-protection category) in 1931 and today a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), it remained closed for worship from 1985 due to serious structural problems until it reopened on 20 April 2011.
Monument
Remains of the medieval walls of Tarazona, the Roman Turiaso that minted its own coinage in the 1st century BC; the city was reconquered by Alfonso I el Batallador in 1119, shortly after taking Zaragoza, and remained a key stronghold at the triple boundary between Aragon, Castile and Navarre.
Monument
The church of Santa María Magdalena, former cathedral of Tarazona and today a parish church, stands in the El Cinto district, in the upper part of Tarazona, next to the Episcopal Palace, and is one of the oldest monuments in the city. Its construction began in the late 12th century, from which period the three Romanesque ashlar apses and the base of the tower survive; the original nave was replaced in the late 15th century by a Gothic brick one, with three naves and Mudejar timber roofs, and the tower was later raised twice, in Mudejar and Mannerist style. It is the seat of the Cofradía del Santísimo Cristo del Consuelo y Santa María Magdalena, which processes with a 17th-century crucified Christ and a late-16th-century carving of the Magdalene.
Activity
Tarazona's festival in honour of San Atilano, featuring the celebrated tradition of the Cipotegato, a figure dressed as a jester who runs through the streets while being pelted with tomatoes.
Monument
The old Jewish quarter of Tarazona, one of the best preserved in Aragón, with its houses hanging over the River Queiles.
Monument
An octagonal bullring located in Tarazona (Zaragoza), built between 1790 and 1792 on the town's old meadow and inaugurated on the day of San Atilano, patron saint of Tarazona, in 1792. It is made up of a set of 32 dwellings with a ground floor and three storeys, with an inner courtyard where bullfights were held, visible from the rented balconies, and large inner arches on chamfered pillars that for years remained walled up by the dwellings themselves. In 1870 the bullfights were moved to a new ring and this one was left as housing and a market; after a complete restoration in 1998 the arches became visible again. Since 2001 it has been a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) and is part of the Unión de Plazas de Toros Históricas de España.
Monument
The Bishop's Palace of Tarazona (Zaragoza), home of the bishop of the diocese of Tarazona and a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 2020, occupies the site of an old Muslim zuda that later became a residence of the kings of Aragon. Bought in 1386 by Bishop Pérez Calvillo after the destruction of the previous episcopal houses, it was thoroughly transformed up to the episcopate of González de Munébrega, between 1547 and 1567. In 1591 Philip II held the Cortes of Aragon here following the Disturbances of Aragon. Built on the conglomerate rock of the historic centre, it presents six large brick arches on its façade facing the Queiles river. Inside, the dome of the grand staircase stands out, the work of Pietro Morone, decorated with portraits of Charles I, Prince Philip and González de Munébrega himself, as well as the Hall of Bishops, covered with a 15th-century Mudejar coffered ceiling.
Nature
A stretch of the river Queiles as it passes through Tarazona, beneath the hanging houses of the Jewish quarter. At this point the river forms notable escarpments in the conglomerate rock on which the city stands, and downstream of the town its bed widens, used to irrigate the surrounding market gardens. Within the town itself, at the Ojo de San Juan spring, rises the water that feeds the Selcos irrigation channel, one of those that irrigate the Tarazona plain.
Monument
Hermitage in the municipal district of Tarazona, a city that was a Roman municipium under the name Turiaso from the 1st century BC and that Alfonso I el Batallador reconquered in 1119. In 1170 it hosted, in the church of San Miguel, the wedding of Alfonso VIII of Castile to Eleanor of Plantagenet.
Monument
The historic centre of Tarazona, declared a historic-artistic site in 1965, stretches alongside the Queiles river, overlooked by its characteristic hanging houses. Its oldest core is the El Cinto quarter, a former walled precinct where the cathedral and much of the city's religious buildings are concentrated; next to it lies the Judería, the former Jewish quarter, which eventually blended into the Christian population. Its narrow, cobbled streets, with round arches, brick, Arab tiles and wrought ironwork, reveal traditional Aragonese architecture, visible in buildings such as the palace of the Counts of Visconti. The poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer called Tarazona "the little Aragonese Toledo" after walking through its streets.
Monument
The Fuente de los Ocho Caños is found in Tarazona, the city where Felipe II convened the Cortes in 1592 following the Aragonese disturbances surrounding Antonio Pérez, used to curtail the kingdom's fueros and limit the Justicia de Aragón.
Activity
Tarazona's winter festival is held in the city where Felipe II convened the Cortes in 1592 to curtail the Aragonese fueros, and whose surroundings produce extra-virgin olive oil under the Sierra del Moncayo Protected Designation of Origin.
Historical milestone
The Roman city of Turiaso attained the rank of municipality with right of citizenship in the first century BC and minted its own coinage. Beneath the old town of Tarazona remains of its baths, streets and dwellings have appeared, as well as epigraphic material.
Historical milestone
Alfonso I the Battler took Tarazona in 1119, shortly after the conquest of Zaragoza, and restored the episcopal see already documented in the year 449. The city remained a key stronghold on the triple boundary between Aragon, Castile and Navarre.
Historical milestone
In 1170 the marriage of Alfonso VIII of Castile to Eleanor Plantagenet, daughter of Henry II of England, was celebrated in the church of San Miguel in Tarazona. Seven years later the city hosted the meeting of three peninsular Christian kings.
Historical milestone
After the disturbances of 1591 surrounding Antonio Pérez, Felipe II convened the Cortes in Tarazona in 1592 and used them to curtail the Aragonese fueros and limit the Justicia of Aragon, whose office became one of royal appointment and removal.
Food and drink
Aceite Sierra del Moncayo is a protected designation of origin created in 2010, with the Regulating Council based in Magallón, which covers extra virgin olive oils produced in the comarcas of Tarazona y el Moncayo and Campo de Borja, in the west of the province of Zaragoza. The area comprises more than 2,500 hectares of olive groves spread across 35 municipalities and around 2,500 small olive growers, with an average annual output of more than four million kilos of olives. The main varieties are empeltre and arbequina, with a minor presence of negral, royal and verdial, grown in high-altitude, cold-climate olive groves characteristic of this borderland between the Meseta and the Ebro valley.