Centro, Casco Histórico,Delicias, Universidad, San José, Las Fuentes, La Almozara, Oliver-Valdefierro, Torrero-La Paz, Actur-Rey Fernando, El Rabal, Casablanca, Santa Isabel, Miralbueno, Sur, Distrito Rural
On 1 January 2021, the population of the municipality of Zaragoza was 675,301[8] (as of 2023, thefourth most populous in Spain), on a land area of 973.78 square kilometres (375.98 square miles). It is the26th most populous municipality in theEuropean Union. The population of themetropolitan area was estimated in 2006 at 783,763 inhabitants. Themunicipality is home to more than 50 percent of the Aragonese population. The city lies at an elevation of about 208metres (682 feet)above sea level.
TheIberian town that preceded Roman colonisation was calledSalduie[9] orSalduba.[10] The Romans and Greeks called the ancient cityCaesaraugusta (in GreekΚαισαραυγοῦστα,Kaisaraugoûsta),[11][12] from which derive the Arabic nameسرقسطةSaraqusṭa (used during theAl-Andalus period), the medievalÇaragoça, and the modernZaragoza.
Augustus founded the city asCaesaraugusta between 25 BC and 11 BC[13] as acolony to settle army veterans from theCantabrian wars. As a Roman city, it had all the typical public buildings:forum,baths,theatre, and was an important economic centre. Many Roman ruins can still be seen in Zaragoza today.
Map of Zaragoza (Saraqusta) during the Muslim rule, superimposed on the current city (light grey)
Despite the general decline of the last centuries of the Roman empire, Zaragoza suffered little. Capture by theGoths in the fifth century AD was without significant bloodshed or destruction.[6]
On 18 December 1118,Alfonso I of Aragon conquered the city from the Almoravids,[18] and made it the capital of theKingdom of Aragon.[19] The aforementioned monarch created a jurisdictional dominion in the city, which was gifted toGaston of Béarn.[20] The city remained alordship up until the early 13th century.[21]
There was aJewish community in medieval Zaragoza, a notable center whereyeshivas also incorporated the study of philosophy alongsideTalmud studies.[22] In the 11th century, the city was home to several notable Jewish physicians, including Menahem ibn al-Fawwal andJonah ibn Janah, the latter of whom also gained renown as a Hebrew grammarian. Ibn Janah authoredKitāb al-Talkhīṣ, which included detailed descriptions of drugs, weights and measures used in medicine.[23] Another prominent figure was Jonah ibn Biklārish, who served as court physician to Sultan Al-Musta'in II and authoredKitāb al-Musta'īnī, a drug manual written in table form that included names and properties of drugs.[23]
The Jewish community of Zaragoza had seven synagogues, two of which are known by location today:Le Mayor (the main synagogue) and the synagogue "de los Callizos" or "de Cehán."[24] The community was spared from the1391 pogroms, in large part due to the presence of the king and the intervention of the prominent Jewish leaderḤasdai Crescas.[25] In 1481, the Crown appointed the monk Miguel Ferrer to enforce the segregation of Jewish households in Zaragoza, but his extreme cruelty led KingFerdinand II to remove him from the post.[26] On 29 April 1492, the Crown's decision to expel the Jews was announced in Zaragoza to the kingdom's procurators, two days before theEdict of Expulsion was formally proclaimed inCastile.[26] The city's rabbi, Açach Chaqon, was ordered on 13 May to leave the Jewish quarter within a day and the kingdom within three.[26] Most of the Jewish community eventually departed Zaragoza between 27 and 29 July, traveling to the port ofSagunto to go into exile.[26]
In the months following the expulsion, the Crown and theInquisition supervised the confiscation and transfer of communal property, includingTorah scrolls, silver crowns, decorative cloths, and other ritual objects, many of which were dismantled, redistributed, or given to city authorities and religious institutions.[26] In late 1493, Zaragoza formally received the Jewish quarter and its associated buildings.[26]
In the context of the 1701–1714War of the Spanish Succession, the city rose in arms in favour of theArchduke Charles, who was proclaimed "King of Aragon" in the city on 29 June 1706, following the uprising of other parts of the Kingdom of Aragon in December 1705.[29] Charles entered the city in July 1706, directing the attack on those places of Aragon that had sided with theBourbon faction such asBorja or theCinco Villas.[30] Following theApril 1707 battle at Almansa, the tide turned with theAustracist forces fleeing in disarray, and the Bourbon forces commanded by theDuke of Orléans entering the city on 26 May 1707.[31] As he seized control of the kingdom, he began to enact the series of institutional reforms known as theNueva Planta, abolishing the Aragonese institutions in favour of the Castilian ones.[31] The war turned around again in 1710 after theBattle of Almenar, and, following anotherBourbon defeat near Zaragoza on 20 August 1710, Archduke Charles returned to the city on the next day.[30] This was for only a brief period, though, as following the entry of Philip V in Madrid and the ensuingBattle of Villaviciosa in December 1710, the Habsburg armies fled from Zaragoza in haste in December 1710 andPhilip V proceeded to consolidate his rule over the kingdom of Aragon, resuming administrative reforms after a period of institutional void.[32]
An importantfood riot caused by the high price of bread and othernecessity goods[33] took place in the city in April 1766, the so-calledmotín de los broqueleros, named after the repressive agents, volunteer farmers and craftsmen who wielded swords andbucklers (broqueles).[34] The repression left about 300 wounded, 200 detainees and 8 deaths and it was followed by 17 public executions, and an indeterminate number of killings at the dungeons of theAljafería.[35]
Assault of the French Army at Santa Engracia Monastery on 8 February 1809 during thePeninsular War. Oil on canvas, 1827.
Zaragoza suffered two famous sieges during thePeninsular War against the Napoleonic army: afirst from June to August 1808; and asecond from December 1808 to February 1809, surrendering only after some 50,000 defenders had died.[36]
Railway transport came to Zaragoza on 16 September 1861 with the inauguration of theBarcelona–Zaragoza line with the arrival of a train from the former city to theEstación del Norte.[37] TheMadrid–Zaragoza line was opened a year and a half later, on 16 May 1863.[37]
TheJuly 1936 coup d'état (with Gen.Miguel Cabanellas, Col.Monasterio [es],Urrutia [es],Sueiro [es], Major Cebollero and Gen.Gregorio de Benito [es] at the centre of theMola-led conspiration in Zaragoza) triumphed in the city.[38] After the military uprising in Africa on 17 July, the military command easily attained its objectives in Zaragoza in the early morning of 19 July,[39] despite the city's status as stronghold of organised labour (mostlyCNT anarcho-syndicalists but alsoUGT trade unionists), as the civil governor critically refused to give weapons to the people in time.[40] Many refugees, including members of the provincial committees of parties and unions, fled toCaspe, the capital of the territory of Aragon, which was still controlled by the Republic.[41]
Falange members in front of the Basilica of El Pilar (12 October 1936)
The rearguard violence committed by the putschists, with at least 12 murders on 19 July, would only goin crescendo along the beginning of the conflict.[42] Thus one of the two big cities under Rebel control since the early stages of theSpanish Civil War along withSeville, Zaragoza profited from an increasing industrial production vis-à-vis thewar economy,[43] playing a key role for theFrancoist faction as ammunition manufacturer.[44]
Following the declaration of Zaragoza asPolo de Desarrollo Industrial ("Pole for Industrial Development") by the regime in 1964, the city doubled in population in a short time.[46] The increase in population ran parallel to therural flight and depopulation in the rest of Aragon.[45]
In 1979, a fire at theHotel Corona de Aragón fire killed at least 80 people, including members of the family of Francisco Franco.[47] The armedBasque nationalist and separatist organizationETA carried out theZaragoza barracks bombing in 1987 which killed eleven people, including a number of children, leading to 250,000 people taking part in demonstrations in the city.[48]
Since 1982, the city has been home to a large factory built byGeneral Motors for the production ofOpel cars, some of which are exported to the United Kingdom and sold under theVauxhall brand. The city took advantage of the entry of Spain into the European Communities (later European Union).[49]
Zaragoza, as seen by theEuropean Space Agency'sSentinel-2Zaragoza sheet of MTN50 (Spain's National Topographic Map at 1:50,000 scale), at its first digital edition (year 2006).
Zaragoza lies in the north-east of theIberian Peninsula, in the rather arid depression formed by the valley of theEbro. The Ebro cuts across the city in a west north-west by east south-east direction, entering the municipality at 205metres above sea level and exiting the municipality at a level of 180 metres above sea level.[50]
The city enjoys a beneficial location at the geographical centre of the rough hexagon formed by the Spanish cities ofBilbao,Madrid,Valencia andBarcelona and the French cities ofBordeaux andToulouse.[49]
The municipality has a surface of 973.78 km2 (375.98 sq mi),[51] making it the ninth largest municipality in Spain.[52]
While the river banks are largely flat, the territory flanking them can display a rugged terrain, featuringmuelas and escarpments.[53] The surrounding elevations rise up to heights of about 600–750 metres above sea level.[50] The locations near the meanders of the Ebro feature some sinkholes formed upon the subsidence of thegypsum-rich soil, that can form ponds fed from irrigation water.[53] There is also an instance of seasonalendorheic lagoon,la Sulfúrica, in the moors located in the southern part of the municipality.[53]
The Roman core of Caesaraugusta was founded on the right bank of the Ebro, with the north-east corner limiting the confluence of the Ebro with theHuerva river, a modest right-bank tributary of the Ebro.[54] The Huerva runs through the city buried for much of its lower course.[55] Zaragoza is also located near the confluence of the Ebro with theGállego, a more voluminous left-bank tributary born in thePyrenees.[56]
Zaragoza has asemi-arid climate (Köppen:BSk),[57] as it lies in a widebasin entirely surrounded bymountains which block off moist air from the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The average annualprecipitation is a scanty 328 millimetres (12.9 in) with abundant sunny days, and the rainiest seasons are spring (April–May) and autumn (September–November), with a relativedrought in summer (July–August) and winter (December–March).
Temperatures in summer are hot, and in winter a cold and drywind blows from the northwest, theCierzo. Nightfrost is common and there is sporadicsnowfall. Fog can be persistent in late autumn and early winter.
Climate data for Zaragoza Airport, altitude 263m (1991-2020), extremes (1942-present)
According to a survey carried out by theCentro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) in 2019 with a sample size of 300, 51.0% of the surveyed people described themselves as non-practising Catholic, 24.0% as practising Catholic, 6.7% as indifferent/non-believer, 5.0% asagnostic, 4.3% asatheist and 2.3% as "other religions", while a 6.7% did not answer.[62]
In 2017, there were 64,003 foreign citizens in Zaragoza,[63] which represent 9.6% of the total population. From 2010 to 2017 immigration dropped from 87,735 to 64,003 people, a 27% drop. Romanians represent 29.8% of foreigners living in Zaragoza, or 2.9% of the total city population, followed byMoroccans (9.1%) andChinese (7%).
AnOpel factory was opened in 1982 inFigueruelas, a small village nearby. Theautomotive industry is a main pillar of the regional economy along withBalay, which manufactures household appliances;CAF, which builds railwayrolling stock for both the national and international markets; SAICA and Torraspapel in the stationery sector; and various other local companies, such asPikolin,Lacasa, andImaginarium SA.[citation needed]
The city's economy benefited from projects like theExpo 2008, the official World's Fair, whose theme was water andsustainable development, held between 14 June and 14 September 2008,Plataforma Logística de Zaragoza (PLAZA), and theParque Tecnológico de Reciclado (PTR). Furthermore, since December 2003, it has been a city through which theAVE high-speed rail travels. Currently,Zaragoza Airport is a major cargo hub in theIberian Peninsula, behind only Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon.
Zaragoza is home to aSpanish Air and Space Force base, which was shared with theU.S. Air Force until 1992.[64] In English, the base was known asZaragoza Air Base. The Spanish Air Force maintained aMcDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet wing at the base. No American flying wings (with the exception of a few KC-135s) were permanently based there, but it served as a training base for American fighter squadrons across Europe. It also hosts the mainSpanish Army academy,Academia General Militar, a number of brigades atSan Gregorio, and other garrisons.[65]
Christianity took root in Zaragoza at an early date.[66] According to legend,St. Mary appeared miraculously toSaint James the Great in Zaragoza in the first century, standing on a pillar. This apparition is commemorated by a famous Catholicbasilica calledNuestra Señora del Pilar ('Our Lady of the Pillar').[67]
TheAragonese language, in decline for centuries and restricted mostly to northern Aragon, has recently attracted more people in the region. Thus, nowadays, in Zaragoza, up to 7,000 people speak Aragonese.[68]
The annualFiestas del Pilar lasts for nine days, with its main day on 12 October. This date also coincides with Spain's national holiday, El Día de la Hispanidad (Day of Hispanicity), which celebrates Spain's cultural and historical ties with Hispanic America.[69] October 12 also corresponds to thearrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.
There are many activities during the festival, from the massively attendedpregon (opening speech) to the final fireworks display over the Ebro; they also include marching bands, dances such asjota aragonesa (the most popular folk music dance), a procession ofgigantes y cabezudos, concerts, exhibitions,vaquillas, bullfights, fairground amusements, and fireworks. Some of the most important events are theOfrenda de Flores, or Flower Offering to St. Mary of the Pillar, on 12 October, when an enormous surface resembling a cloak for St. Mary is covered with flowers, and theOfrenda de Frutos on 13 October, when all theautonomous communities of Spain offer their typical regional dishes to St. Mary and donate them to soup kitchens.
Holy Week in Zaragoza, although not as elaborate an affair as its Andalusian orBajo Aragón counterparts, has several processions passing through the city centre every day with dramatic sculptures, black-dressed praying women and hundreds of hooded people playing drums. It has been aFestival of International Tourist Interest since 2014.[70]
TheUniversity of Zaragoza is based in the city. As one of the oldest universities in Spain and a majorresearch and development centre, thispublic university awards all the highest academic degrees in dozens of fields. Zaragoza is also home to the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program, a unique partnership between MIT, the Government of Aragon and the University of Zaragoza.
Zaragoza'sThird Millennium Bridge spans theEbro and is the world's largest concretetied-arch bridge, with six traffic lanes, two bike lanes, and two glass-enclosed walkways for pedestrians.[71]
The city is connected bymotorway with the main cities in central and northern Spain, includingMadrid,Barcelona,Valencia, andBilbao, all of which are located about 300 kilometres (200 miles) from Zaragoza.
The city has a network of buses which is controlled by the Urban Buses of Zaragoza (AUZSA). The network consists of 31 regular lines (two of them circle lines), two scheduled routes, six shuttle buses (one free), and seven night buses operating on Fridays, Saturdays and other festivities.[72] Zaragoza also has an interurban bus network operated by Transport Consortium Zaragoza Area (CTAZ) that operates 17 regular lines.[73]
Zaragoza's bicycle lanes facilitate non-motorised travel and help cyclists to avoid running into pedestrians and motor vehicles. The city council also has a public bicycle-hire scheme, thebizi zaragoza, which has an annual charge.
The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Zaragoza, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 48 minutes. 9% of public transit riders ride for more than two hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 11 minutes, while 12% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 4.2 km (2.6 mi), while 5% travel over 12 km (7.5 mi) in a single direction.[75]
A 2013 La Liga fixture inLa Romareda vs Real Madrid
Zaragoza's main football team,Real Zaragoza, plays in theSegunda División. Founded on 18 March 1932, its home games are played atLa Romareda, which seats 34,596 spectators. The club has spent the majority of its history inLa Liga. One of the most remarkable events in the team's recent history is the winning of the formerUEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1995. The team has also won the Spanish National Cup,Copa del Rey, six times: 1965, 1966, 1986, 1994, 2001 and 2004 and anInter-Cities Fairs Cup (1964). A government survey in 2007 found that 2.7% of the Spanish population support the club, making them the seventh-most supported in the country.
Its current stadium (La Romareda) will be demolished and a new one will be built, as Zaragoza[76] is expected to be one of the eleven Spanish cities to host theFIFA World Cup 2030.
The main basketball team,Basket Zaragoza, known asCasademont Zaragoza for sponsorship reasons, plays in theLiga ACB. The Basket Zaragoza women's team also plays at the highest level in Spain, being the current finalist of theLiga Femenina Endesa. They play their home games at thePabellón Príncipe Felipe with a capacity of 10,744. This pavilion will be the final venue forEuroLeague Women from 2025 to 2027.[77]
Stadium Casablanca, a.k.a.Mann Filter for sponsorship reasons, is the Spanish women's basketball club from Zaragoza that plays in thePrimera Division.
TheSpanish Baja orBaja Aragon is a Rally raid event held in the region of Aragon in northern Spain. This event was launched in 1983, and chose the desert of Monegros because of the scenery and availability of service infrastructure in Zaragoza.
Near thebasilica on the banks of the Ebro are located thecity hall, the Lonja (old currency exchange), La Seo (literally 'theSee' in the Aragonese language) orCathedral of San Salvador, a church built over the main mosque (partially preserved in the 11th-century north wall of the Parroquieta), with Romanesque apses from the 12th century; inside, the imposinghall church from the 15th to 16th centuries, the Baroque tower, and finally, with its famous Museum of Tapestries near the Roman ruins of forum and portcity wall.
Also in the city centre, there is the palace of theAljafería, conceived in the third quarter of the 11th century on behalf of theHudid dynasty, featuring in its interior one of the most rich and complex instances ofornamental Islamic art, either Western or Eastern.[79] It currently serves as the site of the Aragonese parliament.
The churches ofSan Pablo,Santa María Magdalena andSan Gil Abad were built in the 14th century, but the towers may be old minarets dating from the 11th century;San Miguel (14th century); Santiago (San Ildefonso) and the Fecetas monastery are Baroque with Mudéjar ceilings of the 17th century. All the churches are Mudéjar monuments that comprise aWorld Heritage Site.[80]
Other important sights are the stately houses and palaces in the city, mainly of the 16th century: palaces of the count of Morata or Luna (Audiencia), Deán, Torrero (colegio de Arquitectos), Don Lope or Real Maestranza, count of Sástago, count of Argillo (today the Pablo Gargallo museum), archbishop, etc. On 14 June 2008, the site of Expo 2008 opened its doors to the public. The exhibition ran until 14 September.
Abraham Abulafia (1240–1291), founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah"
Alonso Fernández de Heredia (died March 19, 1782), Captain General and governor of Honduras (1747), Florida (1751–1758), Yucatán (in modern-day Mexico; 1758–?), the Captaincy General of Guatemala (1761–1771) and Nicaragua (1761–1771).
^William Smith (1854).A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Walton and Maberly London.ISBN978-1-845-11001-7.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Sivan, H.; S. Keay; R. Mathisen; DARMC, R.; Talbert, S.; Gillies, J.; Åhlfeldt; J. Becker; T. Elliott."Places: 246344 (Col. Caesaraugusta)". Pleiades.Archived from the original on 24 December 2014. Retrieved23 December 2014.
^It is nowadays thought likely that she died during the earlier persecution. It was previously assumed that she had been killed during theDiocletian persecution in around 303 under the prefectDacian.
^Marciano, Yoel (2019).Sages of Spain in the Eye of the Storm: Jewish Scholars of Late Medieval Spain (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik. p. 231.ISBN978-965-536-266-4.
^abFerrario, Gabriele; Kozodoy, Maud (2021), Lieberman, Phillip I. (ed.),"Science and Medicine",The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 5: Jews in the Medieval Islamic World, The Cambridge History of Judaism, vol. 5, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 844–846,ISBN978-0-521-51717-1, retrieved14 July 2025
^abcdefBeinart, Haim (2001).The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Vol. 1. Translated by Jeffrey M. Green. Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Liverpool University Press. pp. 15, 33,102–104, 226, 245.
^"Puente del Tercer Milenio – Third Millennium Bridge".Discover Monuments, Zaragoza. Sociedad Estatal para la Gestión de la Innovación y las Tecnologías Turísticas, S.A. (SEGITTUR).Archived from the original on 20 June 2013. Retrieved27 December 2012.
^"Avanza Zaragoza".www.urbanosdezaragoza.es.Archived from the original on 4 June 2017. Retrieved13 March 2018.
^Robinson, Cynthia (2012)."Los idiomas del ornamento: la Aljafería y la Alhambra"(PDF).La Aljafería y el arte del islam occidental en el siglo XI: Actas del Seminario Internacional celebrado en Zaragoza los días 1, 2 y 3 de diciembre de 2004. Institución "Fernando el Católico" (C.S.I.C.), Excma. Diputación de Zaragoza. pp. 179, 181.ISBN978-84-9911-207-7.
^Fortnight - Issues 440-448 - Page 23 2006 "Constraints of time, space and blisters explain the omission of Paul Mckinley at OMAC, Felix Anaut at the Arttank and the Disembodied Eye at the Golden Thread."
Adiego Adiego, Elvira (2002)."Visión histórica y urbana de los ríos en Zaragoza"(PDF). In Cal Nicolás, Pablo de la; Pellicer Corellano, Francisco (eds.).Ríos y ciudades: aportaciones para la recuperación de los ríos y riberas de Zaragoza. Institución "Fernando el Católico", Excma. Diputación de Zaragoza. pp. 251–272.ISBN84-7820-606-X.
Corral Lafuente, José Luis (2008)."El diseño urbano de la Zaragoza islámica"(PDF).Revista del Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos.XXXVI. Madrid: Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos:191–213.ISSN1132-3485. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 8 October 2018. Retrieved4 August 2020.
.jpg)
_ESA.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
