The Salto de Roldán

Close to the city of Huesca, this place was named in honour of one of the most legendary characters of the Middle Ages, the valiant French knight, Roldán. It has some imposing rock walls from which you can sight magnificent countryside and it is in the north-western sector of the Sierra Natural Park and the Guara Canyons. Legend has it that when Roldán, at the head of the rearguard of the Carolingian Army, withdrew towards France, pursued from the south, he was ambushed at the San Miguel Crag. To escape from his persecutors, he spurred his horse to jump (a salto) over the gorge, reaching the crag on the opposite side. The hoof prints are embedded in the rock.

The Salto de Roldán is formed by two impressive ridged wall faces - the San Miguel Crag and the Amán Crag; they are both steep conglomerate formations with the Flumen River at the bottom.The river eroded the synclines at different levels of the conglomerate deposits during the Tertiary period. All the synclines have varying degrees of hardness. Sometimes the rock fractures to form isolated synclines, as is the case of the Fraile Crag.

This type of geological environment, with its variety of air currents, is the favourite habitat of many birds of prey, in particular the Griffon vulture, that find refuge in the hollows of the rocks.