Page 245 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

AR A GÓN  243

Aragón’s Fiestas
Las Tamboradas (Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday),
Teruel pro vince. During Easter
Week, brotherhoods of men
wearing long black robes
beat drums in mourning
for Christ. Las Tamboradas
begins with “the breaking
of the hour” at midnight
on Thursday in Híjar. The
Tamborada in Calanda begins
the following day at midday.
The solemn drum rolls
continue for several hours.
Castle-parador above Alcañiz Aching arms and bleeding
hands are considered to be
Casa-Museo de Goya is a neat s Alcañiz signs of religious devotion.
cottage said to have been the Teruel. * 16,000. @ n Calle Mayor
painter’s home. It has been 1, 978 83 12 13. ( Tue. _ Fiestas
restored and furnished in a style Patronales (8–13 Sep). ∑ alcaniz.es
appropriate for the period.
Two build ings rise above
Environs the town of Alcañiz. One is the
Lying 14 km (9 miles) east of castle, once the head-quarters
Fuendetodos is Belchite, the of the Order of Calatrava. This
site of one of the most horrific historic building has been
battles of the Spanish Civil War converted into a parador. The
(see pp70–71), for control of the keep, the Torre del Homenaje,
strategic Ebro Valley. Remains has a collection of 14th-
of the old, shell-torn town have century frescoes depicting
been left tottering as a monu- the conquest of Valencia by
ment to the horrors of war. Jaime I.
In Cariñena, 25 km (16 miles) The other building is the
west of Fuendetodos, bodegas Iglesia de Santa María. This Young drummer in Las
offer the opportunity to sample church, on the sloping Plaza Tamboradas, Alcorija
and buy the excel lent, full- de España, has a Gothic tower
bodied red wine for which and a Baroque façade. Carnival (Feb/Mar), Bielsa
(Huesca). The protagonists
the region is justly renowned On the same square are of this fiesta, known as
(see pp206–7). the elegantly galleried Lonja Trangas, have rams’ horns
(com modities exchange), with on their heads, blackened
E Casa-Museo de Goya its lacy Gothic arches, and faces and teeth made of
Calle Zuloaga 3. Tel 976 14 38 30. the town hall (ayuntamiento), potatoes. They are said to
Open 11am–2pm, 4–7pm with one Mudéjar and one represent fertility.
Tue–Sun. & Renaissance façade. Romería de Santa Orosia
(25 Jun), Yebra de Basa
(Huesca). Pilgrims in folk
Francisco de Goya costume carry St Orosia’s
Born in Fuendetodos in 1746, skull to her shrine.
Francisco de Goya specialized in Día del Pilar (12 Oct),
designing cartoons for the tapestry Zaragoza. Aragón’s distinc tive
industry (see p310) in his early life, folk dance, the jota, is per-
and in decorating churches such as formed everywhere during
Zaragoza’s Basílica del Pilar with the city’s festivities in honour
vivacious frescoes. In 1799 he became of its patroness, the Virgin of
painter to Carlos IV, and depicted the Pillar (see pp240–41). On
the king and his wife María Luisa with the Día del Pilar there is a
unflattering accuracy (see p37). The procession with cardboard
giants, and a spectacular
Self-Portrait by Goya invasion of Madrid by Napoleon’s display of flow ers dedicated
troops in 1808 (see pp66–7) and its
attend ant horrors had a profound and lasting effect on Goya’s to the Virgin.
temperament, and his later works are imbued with cynical despair
and isolation. He died in Bordeaux in 1828.

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