Monreal de Ariza

Municipality of Monreal de Ariza
	Monreal de Ariza - town view with castle hill
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Zaragoza
Comarca :	Comunidad de Calatayud
Coordinates	41 ° 17 ′ N , 2 ° 6 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 17 ′ N , 2 ° 6 ′ W
Height :	770 msnm
Area :	62.06 km²
Residents :	200 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	3.22 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	50291
Municipality number ( INE ):	50172
administration
Website :	Monreal de Ariza

Monreal de Ariza is a place and a municipality ( municipio ) with a total of 200 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the extreme west of the province of Saragossa in the autonomous region of Aragon in northeastern Spain . The place is a station on the Camino del Cid ; it belongs to the sparsely populated region of the Serranía Celtibérica .

Location and climate

The place Monreal de Ariza is located on the south bank of the Río Jalón a good 130 km (driving distance) southwest of the provincial capital Saragossa at an altitude of approx. 770 m . The lovely town of Calatayud is approx. 48 km to the east. The climate is harsh in winter, but temperate to warm in summer; the rather sparse rain (approx. 430 mm / year) falls over the year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	612	716	960	299	208

As a result of increasing drought, the mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of numerous small farms and the resulting lower demand for labor in rural areas, the number of inhabitants fell significantly in the second half of the 20th century as a result of rural exodus. The hamlet (pedanía) Granja de San Pedro, about 4 km to the west, also belongs to the municipality .

Economy and Infrastructure

For centuries, the town's residents were essentially self-sufficient ; There were no markets. The few dealers, craftsmen and service providers were provided with the essentials by street vendors. Today, numerous empty houses are rented out as holiday homes (casas rurales) ; A wind farm was installed in the municipality .

history

The first historically halfway tangible inhabitants of the area around today's Calatayud were Celtiberians from the tribe of the Lusones ; Roman and Visigoth traces are almost completely missing. In the 8th century the area was overrun by Arab-Moorish armies, which were not pushed south until the beginning of the 12th century ( reconquista ) . In the following years, however, the region was contested between the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile ; for this reason, Peter II of Aragón granted the area a complete tax exemption. In 1251, Ariza and some of the surrounding villages broke away from their dependence on Calatayud.

Iglesia de Ntra. Sra. de la Asunción

Attractions

The largely ruinous Castillo was founded in 1128 by Alfonso I as the westernmost defense post of the Kingdom of Aragón and was intended to protect against attacks by the Moorish Almoravids as well as against the expanding Castilians . Its walls are partly made using the Moorish rammed earth technique. At its feet, several rock cellars ( bodegas ) were carved into the crumbly rock of the castle hill in later times .

Overall , the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción , which was originally Romanesque , but was later changed in parts, is somewhat better preserved, but still in danger of collapsing . The church has been closed for more than 50 years.

Surroundings

The Celtiberian , later Roman fortress and / or settlement Arcobriga, already mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemy , was on a hill about three kilometers to the west . The site was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century; a number of small bronze finds were made that are now in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España in Madrid .