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ROUTES BY THE SOMONTANO
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Alquézar
Among deep ravines of the Sierra of Guara, dug patiently by the waters of the river Vero, Castle Colegiata of Santa María la Mayor gets up, and to its feet the labyrinthine medieval country house of the monumental village of Alquézar declared Artistic Historical Group.

Rock, water, history, art and legend are meld in Alquézar, forming a surprising unexpected universe, unique, in which is possible to go back in the time while their narrow back streets are travelled, the doors of the wall are crossed, old histories of Moorish and Christian are listened...
Besides practicing the descent of ravines they can be carried out numerous path routes. Among them it is necessary to mention the one that, leaving of the source of Monchirigüel and descending for the Ravine of the Source, it allows to travel the last tract of the majestic canyon of the Vero; following the perfectly conditioned path is also possible to discover sources, waterwheels, mills and bridges that illustrate the intense use of the water of the river Vero to their step by Alquézar from the medieval time.

From Alquézar one can also visit the cave painting of Quizáns and Chimiachas.
1
Viewpoint Smile to the Wind

From this viewpoint we obtain a first panoramic vision of the monumental village of Alquézar and of the last tract of the deep canyon of the river Vero, before their waters, after abandoning the Sierra of Guara, go into in the fertile and sweet lands of the somontanos.

In the highest in a solitary rock surrounded by deep ravines, the unassailable stronghold raises, lifted by the Christian kings after having been snatched to the Muslims in the XI century. At the beginning of the century IX Jalaf ibn Rasid roses on the rock a first castle, to prevent that the Christian resistance of the neighboring county of Sobrarbe acceded to the Barbitanya. These mountains in the pre-pyrenees represented during a lot of time a true frontier between two cultures, two religions. The name of Alquézar also goes back to the Arab origin of the village, because it derives of al-Qasr, "the strength."

After being conquered by the king Sancho Ramírez in the 1067, it was possible to repopulate the hillsides located in the skirts of the castle, although it would not begin up to the 1100, when Barbastro passed to the power of the Christian. The layout of the town centre adapted to the level curves and protected of the climatic rigors, still preserve the medieval structure from the origin.
Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
2
Gothic doorway

The village of Alquézar had in its origins three doors that gave access to the interior of the urban enclosure, but of all them this beautiful Gothic doorway is only conserved. While in one of their ends an arch of half point was lifted, in the other front it was opted by a pointed arch and crowned by the shield of the village, formed by three towers of a single castle that remembers the military origin of the town.

Under the covered step it is the doorway of the House the Doctor, where exist one of the oldest shields conserved in Alquézar, because it possesses a mould of Gothic appearance and it lacks ornamental elements. In him they can it turns the bars of Aragon, a lion "rampante", animal that is in the shields with the open hand and spread claws, and, surprisingly, the shell next to pilgrim's staff.
Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
3
Pedro Arnal Cavero Street

To go for a walk for this street, before called Mayor Street, it allows us to introduce us in the medieval group of Alquézar and to revive the distant medieval past. It is one of the three vertebral axes that travel the town lengthwise, to the one that they derive other more narrow and staggered traverse streets allowing a more flowing communication to the different points of the town.

Several "callizos", or covered steps on the streets, are still conserved , as memory of last times in those that it was necessary to make use to the maximum of the limited space in a village populated; it is said that it was possible to cross Alquézar from an end to another without necessity of stepping the street.
Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
4
Hermitage of Our Mrs. of the Nieves

It is made with a single body of three tracts covered with vault of starry crossing, in the one that is conserved a small altarpiece formed by fragments of other already missing, so much Renaissance as Baroque.

Their facade was built by stonemasons of the XVII century following models of the popular religious architecture.

Next to the hermitage we can see a jamb belonging to an old door today disabled and in the one that they appear engraved the silhouettes of two shoes. Perhaps it was this the place in which exercised their occupation some shoemaker that already nobody remembers.

Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
5
Mayor Square

We are in the heart of the village of Alquézar, the old Mayor Square, and called today of Mosén Rafael Ayerbe; this important person that exercised of priest in Alquézar at the beginning of the XX century, was able to create a new implant of better almond tree adapted to the climatic conditions of the area and where it is obtained a variety of almond called "largueta" or "desmayo".

It is a beautiful and nice square with doorways under whose arcades, some with arches of half point and other flat ones, the merchants and artisans were located to sell their products of the flat lands and of the mountains.

Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
6
Source of Monchirigüel

After crossing the Mayor Square to continue down the street of the Church, we should take the first street to the left, for which you arrives to the source of Monchirigüel after descending for some stone stairways.

It is a source built in the XVI century that, with Renaissance ornamental elements, it shows the shield of the village of Alquézar.


Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
7
Square Cruz of Buil

At the end of the Street of the Church, where other two streets also converge, it is the Plaza Cruz of Buil. For her you arrive to the walled enclosure of the castle-colegiata, through an emblazoned door built among the XV and XVI centuries. From the origins of the fortress, this place was always the only point to penetrate to the castle, because the rest is surrounded by the vertical walls of the calcareous rock

Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
9
Viewpoint O´Bicón

In the square Cruz of Buil the Baja Street should be taken, because for her you arrive to the viewpoint O'Bicón. From here a magnificent view of the last tract of the canyon of the river Vero can be admired after crossing the mountains of the pre-Pyrenees. From here it is perfectly appreciated the union of the calcareous rock and the conglomerate, giving place each one from them to very different relief, pointed the first and rounded the seconds.

The waters of the river Vero that flow for the bottom of the ravine was capable, in other times, of moving the old hydroelectric central turbines and the heavy stones of the mill of Fuentebaños, located downstream.

Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
11
Parochial church of San Miguel Arcángel

In one of the ends of the town it is the parochial church of San Miguel Arcángel. On a previous temple, that was demolished, it began to be built the current one in 1681 and concluded in 1708.

It is a work of popular character in which calls the attention the robustness and sobriety of the exterior, as well as the harmonious game of volumes and roofs, what hinders to guess that it is a Baroque building. On the contrary, the interior of the nave covered with canyon vault and "lunetos" it is adjusted to this artistic style. Practically the hole of the altarpieces and other liturgical objects that it possessed were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, what explains the scarce interior decoration. Only the superior part of the big Mayor altarpiece of Baroque style could be conserved.

Foto: Ignacio Pardinilla
 
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