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August 2003

Southern Aragon

David Aaronson
2005-09-28 18:29:36

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Driving into southern Aragon from the Juecar gorge involves a tiny winding gravel road that can be extra slow if you happen to be following two campers. As soon as you cross into Aragon the road becomes paved and not much past that is this oddity. To be completely honest we have no idea what this is. It is located at a small roadside picnic area in the Montes Universales near the headwaters of the Tagus (or Tajo) river. That would be the course of the Tagus etched into that map of Spain next to this statue.

Aha, it gets weirder, there are assorted peripheral statues nearby like the bull here (1). Also notice the trendy snowflake crown. Anyone who knows more about this odd little monument in the woods, please email us and let us know.

So the first real town we hit in Aragon was Albarracin which is an incredible medieval village (2). It's a town like this that makes you realize how overused the phrase 'medieval village' really is. Albarracin is stretched along a rocky ridge and coming from La Mancha you actually drive through a tunnel under the town. Parking is at the base of the hill and steep staircases wend up into the narrow alleys of the town.

Albarracin has only about 1000 people. From 1012 to 1104 it was the capital city of Banu Razin, a tiny Berber/Islamic nation. From 1170 to 1285 it was an independent Christian nation. Now it is tucked away quietly in an unused portion of Aragon. Actually, there were spaces for tour bus parking in the public parking lot beneath the city but we didn't see any during our visit so we're not sure how often people come here. There isn't a lot of commercial action, just a couple souvenir shops scattered around a handful of hotels and restaurants.

If you approach Albarracin from the direction of Teruel you'll see the city walls stretching high across the hill long before you see the town. These walls are open to the ...

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Did you ever find out what the weird statues by the side of the Rio Tajo are?
A friend and I drove along that road last summer, we were lucky there were no cars in front nor behind us, and we were even luckier in that we never met up with an approaching car.
We were also fascinated with the statues but so far haven't managed to find out any details or facts.
Do let me know if you know anything more.

Noreen Wilson, 2007-01-11 16:57:44