Heritage
A place with centuries of history to discover
Any visitor is deeply struck by the rugged and awe-inspiring landscape of the canyons of the Sierra de Guara, the most striking and iconic geomorphological feature of its renowned Natural Park. But this spectacle, which highlights the erosive power of the mountains’ rivers, is particularly striking in the canyons of the River Vero, where the beauty and spectacle of its river cliffs are complemented by a human presence dating back to prehistoric times.
Cave paintings and megaliths
En las cuevas, abrigos y covachos que adornan las paredes de las gargantas del Vero y de sus afluentes se encuentran numerosas manifestaciones de arte parietal que conforman el Parque Cultural del Río Vero
This gem of Aragon’s cultural heritage boasts one of the finest collections of cave paintings, comprising almost 60 sites that bear witness to the earliest artistic, magical and ritualistic expressions of our ancestors. Río Vero Cultural Park: Tourism in Aragon (turismodearagon.com)
The Vero region is home to the three main styles of European prehistoric art: Palaeolithic, Levantine and Schematic. A journey through history that begins with groups of hunter-gatherers – in the Cueva de la Fuente del Trucho lies the only Palaeolithic site in Aragon, dating back 24,000 years – ending with the agricultural and pastoral societies of the Neolithic and the Metal Ages – the majority of the rock shelters in the Park feature Levantine and Schematic art, dating from between 6,000 and 1,500 years before our era – who possessed the great sensitivity to paint naturalistic icons that have brought worldwide fame to the Vero, such as the deer in the rock shelters of Chimiachas and Arpán, amongst many other paintings. This cultural legacy forms part of the so-called “Rock Art of the Mediterranean Arc of the Iberian Peninsula”, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
The Río Vero Cultural Park features a Visitor Centre dedicated to Rock Art in the town of Colungo, where you can find all the information you need on the subject, book guided tours of the caves and rock-shelter sites, as well as various activities (entertainment events, workshops for schoolchildren and the whole family), and plenty of resources to help you enjoy the unique experience of prehistory in the Sierra de Guara.
The mountain range also preserves other characteristic features of prehistoric heritage: megalithic structures, dolmens or raised burial cists roofed with large stone blocks, erected to house the bodies of the dead and their grave goods. These structures were built between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages and are representative of a European cultural phenomenon that embodies the spirituality and transcendence of those ancient people. In Guara, it is well worth visiting the dolmens at Ibirque, Belsué, the Losa Mora de Rodellar and the group situated between Almazorre and Paúles de Sarsa.
Romanisation, hermit saints and rock-cut sanctuaries
Rome’s influence is also well documented. There is archaeological evidence of the Roman road or paved road that ran at the foot of the Sierra de Guara, linking Osca (Huesca) and Ilerda (Lérida), with significant remains at Pertusa and Berbegal, or in the place names given to towns such as Nueno, Tierz, Siétamo, Quicena and Loporzano. After the Roman Empire, the slow process of Christianisation is linked to the wanderings of various figures, saints and hermits, who were deeply connected to the region, eventually shaping its beliefs and traditions. Ancient foundations of monasteries and hermitages lie hidden in the canyons and gorges of Guara, sometimes seeking refuge from the Muslims. They are usually simple buildings, whose evocative names lead us, after a long walk, to enclaves of great natural beauty: San Martín de la Bal d’Onsera, San Chinés, San Cosme and San Damián in Vadiello, San Martín de Rodellar, in Alcanadre, or San Martín de Lecina, beside the Vero, all of them important centres for popular pilgrimage and religious festivals.
In fact, since 2020, a hiking trail has followed in the footsteps of Saint Úrbez, one of the most revered saints of Upper Aragon, who is closely associated with livestock farming and agriculture – as a talisman believed to bring rain. The GR 268, or Camino de San Úrbez, links San Pedro el Viejo in Huesca with the hermitage of San Úrbez de Añisclo, following a route that passes through two of the most extraordinary sites in the Guara heritage: the aforementioned hermitage of San Martín de la Bal d’Onsera and the sanctuary of San Úrbez de Nocito, a former monastery in the northern valleys of the mountain range and the place where the saint’s few remaining relics rest.
The Middle Ages. Fortresses, castles, churches and bridges
The Islamic rule is clearly evident in Alquézar, where the Muslims founded a fortress that was later reused by the Christians following the conquest of the town in the 11th century. The border between Christians and Muslims along the pre-Pyrenean mountain ranges has left us a significant heritage in Guara, consisting of a succession of small defensive enclosures and watchtowers that secured the frontiers of the conquests and enabled the Christian advance southwards: the remains of the Salto de Roldán (on the Peña de Sen or San Miguel), the Tower of Santa Eulalia la Mayor, Arraro, the Castle of Azaba, near Almazorre, or Los Santos de Sebil, are the finest examples. Sometimes accompanied by small Romanesque churches such as Sescún, La Fabana or the Virgen del Castillo de Rodellar, situated in almost inaccessible locations that skilfully blend the natural landscape with human intervention.
To obtain information on all the heritage items that are mentioned here, you can use the search engines for http://www.patrimonioculturaldearagon.es/bienes -cultural and http://www.romanicoaragones.com/
Throughout the Middle Ages, the majority of the a5> the villages that we know today in the Sierra de Guara. Many of them house fascinating heritage features linked to Romanesque art – which was in vogue in Western Europe during the 11th to 13th centuries – as you can see in the parish churches and chapels of Alberuela de Laliena, Panzano, Santa Cilia de Panzano, Santa Eulalia la Mayor, San Julián de Banzo, Chibluco, Belsué, Santa María de Belsué (abandoned), Nocito, Bentué de Nocito, Bara, Nasarre (abandoned village), Las Bellostas, Sarsa de Surta and Almazorre. The Romanesque architecture of the area boasts its two most important gems in the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor, in Alquézarhttp://www.alquezar.es/ , and in what was once the convent of Nuestra Señora de la Gloria, in Casbas de Huesca.
Some villages saw their residents leave not so long ago, during the rural exodus of the 20th century. But some settlements were abandoned many centuries ago, and there are scarcely any traces or records of them left, save for a few legends and traditions that remain in the memory of the mountain dwellers, such as the medieval settlement of Las Casas, near Mesón de Sebil, remembered in Adahuesca through the pilgrimage to Crucelós and the legend of “The Grandmothers of Sebil”, the last survivors of that village following a plague who, after being rejected by neighbouring villages, were taken in by Adahuesca. You will find all the information at the Adahuesca Legends and Traditions Interpretation Centre.
If you’re looking for fascinating interiors, San Miguel de Barluenga, Santa María del Monte de Liesa, San Miguel de Foces in Ibieca, Saint Fructuoso of Bierge or Our Lady of Treviño in Adahuesca, will allow you to admire outstanding sets of mural French Gothic, from the 13th–14th centuries, an decoration Gothic linear of influence French, with colours very vivid and distinctive patterns.
Another thing you simply mustn’t miss in the Guara area are the medieval bridges, built in the late Middle Ages or early modern period to span the turbulent waters of the rivers and ravines in the mountains. On the River Vero there is a magnificent collection, with two medieval bridges in Sarsa de Surta (Aínsa-Sobrarbe) and three beautiful viaducts in the municipality of Alquézar (Villacantal, the Molino or Fuendebaños viaduct, and the L’Albarda or Campanachal viaduct). On the Mascún, the Coda or Cabras bridge (Rodellar) stands out, very close to that of Pedruel, now on the River Alcanadre. And on this same river, further upstream, the Famiñosa bridge in Abiego. Not forgetting the one at Sipán on the waters of the Guatizalema, or the one at Diablo (Colungo) on the Gorges descending from the Fornocal.
Modernity, renewal of heritage and depopulation
The economic prosperity of the 16th century made it possible for churches to be built of large proportions (parish churches of large proportions) a9> of great proportions (parish churches of Bierge, Abiego, Azara, Peraltilla), whose masonry still retains structures Gothic -such as the vaults of ribbed star-shaped-, although they do fall within the tastes of the Renaissance, following the model of the influential and nearby cathedral of Barbastro https://barbastro.org/que-ver/monumentos/conjunto-of-the-cathedral. Throughout the villages of Guara, numerous mansions demonstrate the prosperity and power of the families who own them and who erect buildings of prestige scale crowned with the usual gallery of arches of half pointed arches, so characteristic of the palaces of the Aragonese Renaissance. In the successive centuries the Baroque art Baroque became dominant, with countless examples in the foothills southern foothills of the mountains, spurred on by the building boom experienced a117> in the 17th and, including, 18th centuries, with significant extensions and renovations to the parish churches, such as the church in Loporzano, and the construction of some shrines dedicated to the Virgin Mary which reflect ancient traditions of the Sierra de Guara: Santa María de Dulcis (Buera) or Santa María de la Nuez (Bárcabo).
The major economic and social upheavals of the 19th and early 20th centuries led to a crisis with devastating consequences for many villages in the Sierra de Guara, particularly those on its northern face, which was more inaccessible and had poorer transport links. Between the 1950s and 1970s, rural exodus, including total abandonment, took hold in Guara, one of the areas most affected by depopulation in the whole of Aragon. The heritage of the uninhabited villages and hamlets (farmhouses, inns, houses, stables, cellars, barns, hearths and chimneys, churches, chapels and all manner of buildings and elements of ethnographic interest such as mills, smithies, ovens, etc.) will suffer slow deterioration or, in many cases, looting by heartless individuals. On occasion, place names are the only thing that brings to mind the vast heritage which, sadly, has been lost in many corners of this region. From the long list of abandoned settlements in the Guara area, we shall mention only those located within the boundaries of the Natural Park: Nasarre, Otín, San Hipólito, Letosa and Bagüeste.
The loss of the traditional uses also led to the abandonment of fields and crops, whilst the cessation of grazing led to which meant that the grasslands evolved into scrubland or led to led to various reforestation projects.
Rural development, the man-made landscape and heritage
However, the arrival of funding for infrastructure and development from the European Union in the late 1980s, the designation of the Sierra y Cañones de Guara Natural Park (1990) —or the more recent Vero River Cultural Park and Sobrarbe-Pyrenees Geopark— have coincided with the strong drive of businesspeople, entrepreneurs and the inhabitants of the mountain range, who are deeply involved in various initiatives, particularly those relating to rural, cultural and sports tourism. The clear result is that Guara is at the forefront of innovation, in the promotion of its natural and cultural heritage; in short, these initiatives have transformed the region into a leading example of so-called sustainable development.
Many ethnological artefacts of great value and interest have been preserved from oblivion and decay, thanks to the conservation and restoration efforts of the local people, local associations and various public authorities. We can thus visit various flour and oil mills –Bara, Abellada, Almazorre, Alquézar and many others–, weirs with their canals or irrigation channels to carry the water –among them, that of the Pedro Buil mill in Sarsa de Surta–, washing places –notably the one carved into a sandstone outcrop in Azlor, known as ‘de los Moros’–, country huts, barn-huts or haylofts, haylofts or apiary hives –the most spectacular of which make use of the hollows in some of the ravines flowing into the Vero in the area around Lecina –, lime kilns, snow pits –located in the highest parts of the mountain range, such as those at Ballemona in the Guara range and Campoluengo, near Sebil-, wells –Nasarre and Adahuesca– and exorcism shrines –small buildings designed to ward off storms, pests and threats to crops– such as the one in Almazorre or the two near the sanctuary of San Cosme and San Damián, known as Cruz Cubierta and Cruz Blanca.
Finally, we must not forget the man-made landscapes that have survived to the present day, the result of the efforts and intervention, since ancient times, of generations of farmers and shepherds. Farmland reclaimed from the mountains by terracing slopes and building dry stone walls, giving rise to the landscapes of terraces, so characteristic of and typical of mountainous areas such as Guara. Mosaics of ancient crops and meadows such as those in the fascinating setting of the Fenales de Used, or the landscapes of the traditional paths between the villages and the livestock trails that ran through the mountains from north to south, linking the Pyrenean valleys with the flatlands of the Ebro Depression, such as the Cañada Real de Nocito and the Cabañera de la Sierra Sebil, which runs from one end to the other its highest ridge, where its famous and strategic Mesón de Sebil was located.
