Zaragoza (also Saragossa) is the 4th largest city in Spain and the the largest in the province of Aragon. In 2023 it overtook Seville as the 4th largest city. It is situated in the North part of Spain, between Madrid and Zaragoza. The city held the World Fair (Expo) in 2008. It is surrounded by dry mountains. The river Ebro flows just South of the city center. Puente de Piedra is the oldest and most central bridge that crosses the river. Zaragoza is a one of the world’s few cities with two cathedrals, both huge in size; Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, or just El Pilar, that is the most famous one and symbol of the city, catholic and both a cathedral and a basilica, built in 1681-1961 and is in baroque style, and La Seo de Zaragoza (Cathedral of San Salvador) in romanesque, gothic and mudéjar style since it was a mosque for a time, is situated on the other side of the big rectangular central square, Plaza de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, where you find the Goya Monument and the smaller Plaza de la Seo. Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, the City Hall in Mudéjar style, is also situated along the square. On one side is the Ebro river and on the other side Casco Antiguo, the beautiful Old Town. Here you Mercado Central (Central Market) and many beautiful buildings, filled with vintage stores, restaurants, bars and cafés. The night life is vibrant and starts already in the afternoon! There are everything from rock clubs to night clubs. Every year Zaragoza also feature many local festivals, the biggest one is the Fiestas del Pilar. Zaragoza was the home of the famous artist Francisco de Goya and an annual Goya festival is held. Plaza de los Sitios is a green and beautiful square with markets a fountain/statue in the middle.
The Roman Theater of Zaragoza (formerly Caesaraugusta) is a Roman theatre built first half of the 1st century AD. It was active until the 3rd century and had a capacity of 6,000 spectators, followed the model of Theatre of Marcellus in Rome. It was found during excavations in 1973, and is now part of the Cesaraugusta Theater Museum, sometimes used for concerts.
In the West end of the city center is the historic palace, Palacio de la Aljafería. This Moorish palace inspired the more famous palace, Alhambra in Granada, but Ajaferia is the original. It was built in the 11th century in the Taifa of Zaragoza, an Arab Muslim statem as the residence for the Banu Hud dynasty. It is very big and surrounded by moats. The palace can be visited as a guided tour. It houses the Cortes, the regional parliament of Aragon, and has a beautiful patio with orange trees.
Iglesia de Santa Isabel de Portugal is a beautiful baroque church from 1681 at Plaza del Justicia, where the Easter parade starts and ends at El Pilar, something that we took part of. Calle de Alfonso I is the main pedestrian street, leading to El Pilar. The East part of central Zaragoza is called La Magdalena and features much mudéjar architecture.
On the South end of the Old Town is Plaza de España, where you find the monument Monumento a los Mártires de la Religión y de la Patria and imposing buildings Banco de España. Here central Zaragoza is extended along the wide avenue with trees on every side, Paseo de la Independencia, that further South changes name to Gran Via, and passes the oval square Plaza Aragón. Further to the South is the majestic park, Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta, that features grandiose fountains and a hill with a viewing terrace. Plaza de Toros de la Misericordia is a bullfighting arena, still in use.
Musems include Museo del Foro de Caesaraugusta (archeological Roman museum), the Goya Museum (Zaragoza was the home of Goya and feature and annual Goya festival), Sala de Exposiciones La Lonja (where we visited a free Goya exhibition), Alma Mater Museum, Museum of History and many others.
The city has not only palms, but also many birches. Zaragoza is known for the Mudéjar architecture, and many buildings are UNESCO sites.
To the North of the river Ebro are modernist residential districts like Arrabal and Barrio de Jesus.
The central station (and coach station), Zaragoza-Delicias, is very large and modern and situated in the West end of the city. In the night there are no connections to the station from the city center. Zaragoza has no metro, but many modern lightrail trams and red buses. Zaragoza has only a small airport, so you have to fly to either Madrid or Barcelona from many countries, and then take the train (fastspeed 2 hours to Madrid) or bus, that takes more then twice the time.
Zaragoza is known as a lowrise city with mostly historical buildings, but when the Expo 2008 (World Fair) was held here, modern highrises were built, like World Trade Center and Torre del Agua and Torre Zaragoza (108m, 30 floors), that is the tallest highrise since 2022. Torre de Telecommunicaciones is a 108m tall TV tower in the outskirts. The Expo, that had water as the theme, took part in the park Parque del Agua Luis Buñuel, where you find many futuristic modern buildings, like Palacio de Congresos de Zaragoza, with it’s weird shapes and a capacity of 1,400 people, a long curved building complex with colourful pillars, the bamboo tree looking Pavilion of Spain and Pavilion de Aragon from the Expo and the Aquarium river of Zaragoza. In front of the congress palace is a strange large sculpture, consisting of letters, Jaume Plensa's L'Ame de l'Ebre. The park is situated in the West end of Zaragoza, surrounded by the river Ebro. An artificial beach, Las Playas Zaragoza (since the city is inland), can also be found within the park. Puente del Tercer Milenio is a futuristic bridge that connects the Expo park with central Zaragoza. Even more futuristic is Pabellón Puente (Bridge Pavilion).
Zaragoza has a dry climate, and already in the spring it can be over 30 degrees C, but it can fastly change to cold nights. In the summer 2022 the city had the record temperatures of Europe!
During the trip we also visited Madrid and Barcelona.
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