Barbastro, since it was founded in the
10th century, has taken the role of the capital of Somontano, or Barbitanya,
as it was known in Moorish times.
Since then, its geographical location turned it into the administrative
capital with commercial vocation, a role which it has maintained up
to the present day.
This is a journey through our history, of our personages and the traces
they left in our city.
In the capital of the Vero it can also take the path GR 45, for which is
possible to accede, on foot or in bicycle, to the towns of Burceat and Cregenzán.
1
The
collection of historical building of San Julián and Santa Lucía
This monumental collection of buildings constitutes the doorway to Somontano.
In the rooms of the old hospital one finds the Tourist Office, a starting
point for information, The D.O. Somontano Wine Office and the local products
shop.
San Julián and Santa Lucía Gothic church was built in 15th
century. It was later restored and used as the Somontano Interpretation
Centre..
A
cathedral complex
La Catedral de la Asunción (Catedral of the Asuncion) is the most
emblematic monument of the city. The ambitious construction at the beginning
of the 14th century was a city project, financed by the local council. The
end result was a temple of great dimensions with a lounge floor, where the
three naves are the same height, giving rise to a open, balanced, majestic
interior space.
The great altarpiece emphasizes the spectacular alabaster base, work of
Damián Forment and his pupil Juan de Liceire.
From the 16th century, the temple was enriched with new chapels in clearly
Baroque style from the 17th century.
The tower was raised to the north of the head of the cathedral, perhaps
because the minaret of the mosque was reused as a belfry when, after the
Christian conquest, it was consecrated to cathedral. Around the beginning
of the 14th century the minaret was knocked down and substituted by a medieval
tower (the walls of the two lower sections are more than two metres wide).
At the beginning of the 17th century another section was added more in the
way of a counter-tower or a interior tower with brick on the interior and
stone on the exterior.
The reconstruction of the spire during the 18th century provided its final
appearance.
The sound of its bells set off the city life, but apart from civil and
religious functions, it was used as a watchtower and as a refuge on various
occasions.
Within the Cathedral complex one finds the Diocesan Museum, which apart
from having an interesting collection of gold articles and fabrics, it
brings together precious sculpture works and medieval paintings.
The excavations carried out in the grounds of the cathedral (Archaeological
Garden) have brought to light remains of the mosque (10th century), the
previous church, the Gothic cloister, the abbey and the 18th century cemetery.
A few metres from the cathedral one finds the Episcopal Palace. When in
1571, after various years of litigation, Barbastro recovered its position
as Episcopal See, the city promised to provide the bishops with a residence
appropriate to their position. For this, it bought a block of buildings,
and between 1598 and 1600 it carried out the works of adaptation of the
four acquired houses.
From the outside, it genuinely took the shape of an Aragonese palace.
The tower in the flank is a reminiscence of fortified rural residences,
a sign of power which its owners in the city houses could not do without.
The current aspect of the palace, its facade and its two viewpoints, correspond
to alterations carried out in the 19th century.
At the end of the square, in the centre, one finds the City Council. The
original Town Hall was built at the end of the 15th century under the orders
of the Moor Farag de Gali, master builder of King Ferdinand The Catholic.
The present building, a product of the deep transformation which it went
through in 1950, features a small eaves, open large windows on the upper
floor and a balcony covered with a forge which opens out to the noble floor.
Originally in the place that is occupied by the House of the Hermanitas
of the Helpless Elders, stood the ancestral home of the Pueyo family. Later
it became the seat of the "Casino of Friendship", one of the two
which were found in Barbastro in the 19th century. Finally, that building,
which has now ceases to exist, hosted the first house of the Hermanitas,
an order founded in Barbastro in 1873 by Saint Teresa de Jornet and by the
canon and historian of the city, Saturnino López Novoa.
The square is closed by the college of the Escolapios, the first (1677)
to be had by the Escolapios in Spain, which is still active to this day.
The church, of Jesuitical typology, has a Latin cross ground plan, a cupola
on a crosspiece and a very high longitudinal nave which opens out to chapels
where the galleries are located. Capitals, leaning pilasters, mouldings
and cornices remit the decorative language of the most classical baroque
style. Its interior contains paintings by the artist from Barbastro Francisco
Zueras.
On the wall which face out onto Argensola Street one can see a coarse coat
of arms: a reminder that the City of Barbastro donated this land (previously
a street) to erect the church there.
From the Church of the Escolapios one gains access to the old Main Street,
which leads us to the Renaissance period. The building known as Latorre
House or "Zapatillas House" is the location for the National Open
University of Education in Barbastro. Its brick facade, arch galleries and
carved-wood eaves remit the type of building that was common in the 16th
century in Aragonese cities amongst the middle class.
The carved-wood eaves of the Argensola Palace are one of most monumental
of its class for the modelling effect of its splendid classic and Renaissance
decoration. The walls of the palace have seen the birth of famous Barbastrens
such as General Ricardos, one of the great European military men from the
18th century, or the poets Lupercio and Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola,
the finest representatives of classical poetry of the era, between the 16th
and the 17th century.
The
Market Square
From its origins, this square has congregated numerous traders and market
gardeners, however unlike other Spanish squares it did not host any building
of power.
Buy and sell,... this is the role of the Market Square in a city with specialized
squares which already had a City Council Square and another for the Cathedral,
an expression of civil and religious power.
At one end one finds Santa Ana Chapel (16th and 19th century). Next to the
chapel the 'Almudi' (a public warehouse used for the buying and selling
of wheat and other grains) which often caused dust to cover the church.
The oldest houses with low porches and with a marked popular air, make up
a compact, even front. Time and the changes in taste which each era brought
with it have transformed the scene of the daily life of the people of Barbastro.
In 1926, the green light was given to a project which contemplated the construction
of historical buildings such as the San Pedro Warehouses or Caloge House
(neomudejar). Finally in 1975 the Entrearcos Cultural Centre was built on
the land of the ancestral home of San José María Escribá
de Balaguer. Inspired in traditional Aragonese style, it was built based
on carved stone, open brick, reinforced concrete lintels and old Arabic
tiles.
The
river, bridges and fountains
Continuing along Argensola Street we reach the river. The right bank of
the Vero was protected by strong walls on which houses were later built.
These considerably high walls formed a compact, solid front. The access
to Barbastro from left bank was only possible by the bridges which connected
with the gateways to the city.
Portillo Bridge was rebuilt in the 19th century following the same lines
as the original. The brick bridge with its three spans was built around
1600 and was bombed during the last Civil War.
San Francisco Bridge as well as the gateway which it led to, received its
name from the Franciscan monastery which had been established around the
13th century.
On the left bank of the Vero there were three public fountains which gave
name to the street Arrabal which leads to them. The Azud and Vivero fountains
disappeared with the canalization of the river. The San Francisco fountain,
one of the finest in Aragon still exists. Its construction was commissioned
by the City Council in 1553 in a place where the water known as "Fuente
de los Frayles" reached. The sculptor Maese Jaques de Guertch designed
the Renaissance layout and the stonemason Juan de Araçil. It was
completed in only 5 months with very white stone from the nearby Fonz quarries.
San
Francisco
You are now in Arrabal, an area of the city which used to be outside the
first walled enclosure of the medina, and began to be developed in the 9th
century, during the Islamic era. In San Antonio Square, adjacent to San
Francisco Church, one finds the remains - not open to visitors at the moment
- of some public baths (10 century) which had various vaulted rooms and
lion-head fountains.
In this area of the city (Arrabal) the San Francisco Monastery was founded
between the 13th and 14th centuries, coinciding with the expansion period
of the mendicant orders. In San Antonio Square one can visit the grounds
of the old cloister and the layout of its walls with the small windows of
the cells, today transformed into private houses.
Between the 16th and 17th centuries the medieval church was transformed
and the large nave was covered with star-shaped vaults. During the 17th
century new chapels were added to it such as the Claramunt with mural paintings
and a beautiful glazed tile plinth from Muel (Saragossa). By taking a stairway
one descends into an arched crypt. There one finds a drawn pew divided into
fifteen seats of honour crafted in stone. On this pew hung the bodies of
the deceased; the walls of the crypt were used to support the corpses.
Some time after the construction of the crypt the goodness of the burial
system was questioned and some of the seats of honour were lowered to hang
wooden coffins above the pew.
A small chapel covered with beautifully designed star-shaped vaults is dedicated
to Ceferino Giménez Malla, "el Pelé", an honest
gypsy mule trader, beatified in 1997 by Pope John Paul.
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