This majestic fortress in the vicinity of Loarre, 1,071 metres high and only 30 km from Huesca, is considered to be Europe’s best-conserved Romanesque castle. It sits on a rocky ridge and includes several buildings that are mostly well-conserved. Amongst these you can see the walls and towers, the fortress, the homage tower and the queen’s look-out (with splendid views over the mountain range and the plains at the foot of the hills). You can also see other religious buildings, for example, the church and the crypt.
Erected in the XI century it was highly important to King Sancho III the Elder in the Christian Reconquest from the Moslems of this Flat Land or Plain (hence the name Plana de Uesca). During the High Middle Ages the Loarre castle and the nearby Marcuello castle were both strategically significant in the Aragonese defence system, faced as they were with the iron strength of the Moslems in Bolea.
Its beauty, uniqueness, its excellent state of conservation and enviable position has, on numerous occasions, made it a scenic choice for films and documentaries, some of them known world-wide such as “Kingdom of Heaven” directed by Ridley Scott.
There is a Reception Centre for visitors with a coffee bar, a souvenir shop and tourist information. The audiovisual documentary about the castle and its era helps the visitor to understand the strategic role it played in the advance of the Kingdom of Aragon towards the south.
Bolea, situated on a promontory intercepting the countryside with a commanding position over the plain, is enhanced at its highest point by the Santa María Collegiate. There is a magnificent view of the homes clustered around it on the hind slope facing the Gratal peak, and Bolea invites us to wander through its richly historical streets. It used to be a Roman possession, then called Calagurris Fibularia; it later passed into Moslem hands and was called Buluya, until King Pedro I made it part of the Christian kingdom of Aragon in 1101.
The collegiate was built by Pedro de Irazábal between 1541 and 1559. The current building was constructed over an ancient XII century Romanesque temple, of which the crypt beneath the presbytery, the head wall and the belfry tower still stand. It has three naves separated by a varied repertory of clustered pillars from XII century chapels, that come from an ancient Arab fortress. The entire temple is level in height and this gives it a pleasant, quite surprising, diaphanous effect.
But the most valuable jewel in this temple is the high altarpiece. It is a work of art combining sculpture and painting from the XVI century (1490 to 1503) in Gothic Mudejar, and belonged to the previous temple. It is composed of 20 panels painted in tempera and 57 sculptures carved in polychrome wood, cypress, walnut, cherry wood and Flanders pine. The paintings, executed by a famous painter from Bolea, are outstanding. Bolea offers important novelties in the Spanish pictorical art of the era influenced by Flemish and Italian artists, such as the expression of the characters’ feelings, the domination of space and perspective, light and shade. The colours, with their wide range of reds and greens, are most original.
Apart from many other altarpieces in this temple, you should stop to admire the view of La Hoya from here, letting history permeate your gaze with the remains of the Roman and Arabic past of these lands, on which successive generations have also left their own imprint.
Data of interest
Address: Herrerías, s/n. 22160 Bolea
Telephone: 649655125
Web: www.colegiatadebolea.es
Visit:
Price: 2 €, Groups, minimum 20 people: 1,5 €, Children free.
The town layout shows how uneven the ground is at the foot of the imposing synclines. Its streets have a Mediaeval flavour, thanks to the use of stone, the window ledges and the coats of arms over the doors. In the town centre, apart from the Romanesque parish church dedicated to San Salvador and the sacred art museum in its crypt, Agüero also has an organ museum. The Romanesque church of Santiago, of considerable architectonic and historical value, is in a really splendid spot on the outskirts.
.jpg "Conjunto Arquitectura Tradicional. Agüero (2)")
.jpg "Conjunto Arquitectura Tradicional. Agüero (3)")
Surrounded by hills, this town is in two parts. The upper part has the XVIII century parish temple, La Asunción, and the lower part, the main square, the spring, the public wash-house and two crosses. Most of the houses have two storeys and are built with stonemasonry which reveals the carving and traditional embellishment. Some have a half-pointed arch over their entrance doors. Others have window ledges, also made of stone, projecting balconies, or eaves over carved wooden fluting.
