Torrijo de la Cañada

Torrijo de la Cañada municipality
	Torrijo de la Cañada - View of the town with Río Manubles
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Zaragoza
Comarca :	Comunidad de Calatayud
Coordinates	41 ° 28 ′ N , 1 ° 52 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 28 ′ N , 1 ° 52 ′ W
Height :	750 msnm
Area :	74.57 km²
Residents :	199 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	2.67 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	50217
Municipality number ( INE ):	50263
administration
Website :	Torrijo de la Cañada

Torrijo de la Cañada is a town in northern Spain and a municipality ( municipio ) with 199 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the far west of the province of Zaragoza and the autonomous region of Aragon . The place belongs to the poorly populated Serranía Celtibérica .

Location and climate

The town of Torrijo de la Cañada, located near the border with the old Castilian province of Soria , is located at an altitude of approx. 725 to 790 m on or above the Río Manubles , a tributary of the Río Jalón ; it is located about 40 km (as the crow flies) south of the Sierra de Moncayo, which is a maximum of 2315 m high . The place is a good 112 km (driving distance) in a westerly direction from the provincial capital of Saragossa ; the historically and culturally significant city of Calatayud is approx. 33 km to the southeast. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 460 mm / year) falls spread over the year with the exception of the rather dry summer months.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	1,737	2,076	1,562	386	210

The mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the associated loss of jobs led to a significant decline in the 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 production of cheese and the processing of sheep's wool were important economic factors in the 16th and 17th centuries. Today fruit trees in particular play an important role in the economic life of the place; In addition, holiday apartments (casas rurales) are rented out.

history

Although the place belonged to the settlement area of the Celtiberian Lusones , so far neither Celtiberian nor Roman or Visigoth traces have been discovered. In the 8th century, Arab-Moorish armies penetrated into the upper Ebro Valley, but even from this period there are no archaeological traces of Torrijo de la Cañada. Around 1120 the area was recaptured by Alfonso I of Aragon ( reconquista ) . In the late Middle Ages it was disputed for a long time between the kingdoms of Aragon 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

Torrijo de la Cañada - Town Hall (Casa Consistorial)

Remains of the keep (torre del homenaje) and the castle walls still exist from the castle (castillo) that may have existed earlier and was destroyed in the war against Castile in the 14th century .

The single-nave Iglesia de San Juan Bautista , built around 1480 instead of a Romanesque predecessor building, is dedicated to John the Baptist . The overall appearance of the rather late Gothic church is built exclusively from precisely hewn stone and has a Renaissance portal on the south side. The nave and apse are covered by star vaults. A Romanesque baptismal font has been preserved; In addition, you can still see several reused stones ( spoilage ) from the previous building.

Another church (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Hortal) from the 16./17. Century is in the immediate vicinity. The design of the south facade with a late Gothic-looking keel arch portal and a transverse rectangular bell tower (campanar) , the upper floor of which shows Mudejar ornaments , is remarkable .

The town hall (Casa Consistorial) is located in a three-storey Renaissance palace from the late 16th century, the facade of which is made of bricks in the Mudéjar style .