Mesones de Isuela

Mesones de Isuela municipality
	Mesones de Isuela - town view
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Zaragoza
Comarca :	Aranda (Spain)
Coordinates	41 ° 33 ′ N , 1 ° 32 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 33 ′ N , 1 ° 32 ′ W
Height :	600 msnm
Area :	48.55 km²
Residents :	264 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	5.44 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	50267
Municipality number ( INE ):	50166
administration
Website :	Mesones de Isuela

Mesones de Isuela is a northern Spanish town and municipality ( municipio ) with only 264 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the west of the province of Saragossa in the west of the autonomous region of Aragon . The place belongs to the poorly populated Serranía Celtibérica .

Location and climate

The place Mesones de Isuela is located on the Río Isuela about 30 km southeast of the Sierra de Moncayo, which is a maximum of 2315 m high, and just under 80 km (driving distance) southwest of the provincial capital Saragossa near the border with the old Castilian province of Soria at an altitude of about 520 to 600 m . The climate is temperate to warm; the rather sparse rain (approx. 400 mm / year) falls spread over the year with the exception of the dry summer months.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	810	615	781	374	274

The mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the associated loss of jobs led to a significant decline in population ( rural exodus ) since the middle of the 20th century .

economy

For centuries, the residents of the village lived directly or indirectly as self-sufficiency from agriculture, which also included livestock farming. The processing of sheep's wool was an important economic factor in the 16th and 17th centuries. Today orchards and viticulture play important roles in the economic life of the place; In addition, holiday apartments (casas rurales) are rented out.

history

Mesones de Isuela - bell tower (campanar)

Although the place belonged to the settlement area of the Celtiberian Lusonen , Celtiberian , Roman and Visigoth traces have not yet been discovered. In the 8th century Arab-Moorish armies advanced into the upper Ebro Valley; sometimes the local castle is still attributed to the Moors . Around 1120 the area was recaptured by Alfonso I of Aragon ( reconquista ) ; he handed them over to the Knights Templar and later to the House of Luna . For a long time it was disputed between the kingdoms of Aragón and Castile ( Guerra de los Dos Pedros ) ; this dispute only ended with the marriage of the Catholic Kings Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragón in 1469.

Attractions

A castle (castillo) built on the highest point of the place probably already existed in Moorish times; it was rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Fernández de Luna family . The castle has a regular rectangular floor plan of approx. 80 × 35 m; There are round towers in the corners and on the two long sides .

The single-nave church of La Asunción de Nuestra Señora was built around the middle of the 16th century (probably in place of a previous building). With the exception of the portal and the corner stones, it consists of uncut, but formerly plastered rubble stones; The two upper floors of the bell tower (campanar) , on the other hand, are made of bricks in the Mudejar style , with the tower showing numerous geometric stone patterns. The nave , which was modernized in the 18th century, is spanned by a late Gothic star vault. The altarpiece (retablo) dates from the 19th century.