El Patio de la Infanta

Hidden in a modern glass office building is one of Zaragoza´s Rennaissance treasures, the Patio de la Infanta.

Dated at 1550, it was the inside patio of the mansión of Gabriel Zaporta who was an important businessman of Jewish origin. The infant in question was the widowed sister-in-law of King Carlos III,  María Teresa de Vallabriga, who returned to live as a widow in Zaragoza from 1785 onwards in the Zaporta mansion.

The mansion wasn’t originally where the patio is now. After several fires it was knocked down in 1903. Only the door and the patio were saved. They were acquired by a French antiquarian who took them to Paris and made a shop in them. Ibercaja savings bank bought the patio back in 1957, but it wasn’t until 1980 that it was installed in the modern building of the bank.

It’s amazing! Open to the public. A few years ago they installed an organ which had been rescued and restored, and they hold concerts there; the patio has been enclosed with a glass roof, and there are tapestries lining the outer walls. 

La margen izquierda, Zaragoza

The left bank of the Ebro in Zaragoza.
We took the tram to the other side of the river and walked from the old stone bridge along Avenida Cataluña. Found the old north railway station building (1861) now a cultural centre. There be dragons:

From the station a couple more blocks to the Casa Solans. It's a spectacularly restored Modernist style building.

Over the river, the setting sun behind the towers of the Pilar basilica and the cathedral.

we walked back through the old parts of the city,

past the great big messy nests of the ring-necked parakeets,

the 16th century casa Morlanes

and the 14th century monastery of San Sepulcro. 

Then the long walk back through the city centre.

Aínsa

It was such a beautiful day yesterday, (after the biggest snowfall of the season on Tuesday) that we decided to go on an outing to Aínsa in the Sobrarbe. It used to be a real trek to get there, but they opened a lovely new road from Sabiñánigo to Fiscal which takes you a good part of the way painlessly. From Fiscal onwards it's narrow and winding but the views are great. We stopped in Boltaña to have coffee in the big Hotel Barceló made out of a great big monastery; last week's two teas in the Parador in Alcañíz cost more than €7, whilst in Barceló we had two coffees and complimentary cakes for €3.90!

Then on to the beautiful, singular town of Aínsa. 

Here's an aerial photo which shows something of the form of this place, which has been a national monument since 1965. You drive up a bendy road and park in a car park which can take more than a thousand cars. Since it's March, low-season, it was free, but last time I was there in -August, with a group of tourists-we had to pay for parking. Only residents are allowed to bring their cars into Aínsa. Just as well-medieval towns weren't designed for cars!

The comarca of Sobrarbe is named after the legend of a battle in the eighth century against the Moors; it wasn't going too well until a cross appeared on top of a tree, and then the Christians won.....something like that.

A pleasant walk away from the town, past a farm takes us to the  covered cross. It's a 17th or 18th century monument; you can just see the thing in the middle is a stone "tree" with a metal cross on the top. Afterwards we walked back through the car park to the town.  Aínsa really is a very special place. Market square, stone arches, Romanesque church of St Mary with a gigantic bell tower and amazing views of the town and the convergence of the two rivers, Ara and Cinca.

Souvenir shops full of "witchy" sorts of gifts; lots of "alternative"-looking people. The restaurants in the market square either didn't show a "menu of the day" or what they showed was more than we wanted to pay. However, just out of the square we found a little place where the food wasn't so expensive. I really enjoyed my meal!

It was a lovely outing altogether.

In spite of the rain

Yesterday, the weather was horrible. Apparently, on the mountain pass road to Jaca there was a multiple car crash in the morning, caused by snow and fog. We heard about it on our way from Zaragoza to Matarraña. Much further south and much lower down, it wasn't snowing, although it was cold, wet and windy all day. Matarraña, in the north-east of the province of Teruel had been in our minds for some time, and we decided to go there in spite of the nasty weather.
Even though we got cold and wet, and couldn't see the views as well as we had hoped, it was worth the effort. Any other time it wouldn't have been so pretty the almond trees, which in Huesca are only just starting to come out, were in full bloom there. Moreover, the arrangement of the trees was unusually pretty. They were alternated with the olive trees for which the region is famous.

I took a few seconds of video to record the rushing wind blowing the trees.

The first destination was the biggest town in the area, Calaceite, where we stopped for a cup of coffee. We were surprised by the monumental character of the buildings.

The next stop, in the now pouring rain was Valderrobres. Cold and wet by now, we decided to eat a good meal in a restaurant. While we were waiting for it to be served we were given a dish of tiny, bitter green olives. Once we'd eaten, the rain had lessened and we could explore. 

Valderrobres castle

View looking away from the castle

Vaderrobres castle from the bridge

Castle wall

Leaving Matarraña, rightly known as the Aragonese Tuscanny, our final visit was Alcañíz. Although we had been there before, we particularly wanted to enter the castle for the first time. Built by the Knights of the Order of Calatrava, it is now a national Parador. There is a bar in the old stables. It was very comfortable there, but the lemon tea we ordered cost us €3.50 apiece (about 3 times the average). We also had to pay for the guided tour, but that was only to be expected, and really was worth it to see the medieval frescoes on the walls and arches.

both carved and painted

Romanesque capitels

Decorated arches in the "torre del homenaje"

He looks like the Green Man

Knights in Aragonese livery

Alcañíz is about an hour from Zaragoza, mainly on roads with one lane in each direction.

This is the whole of Aragón, and Matarraña in red