Villanueva de Sigena

Villanueva de Sigena municipality
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Huesca
Comarca :	Monegros
Coordinates	41 ° 43 ′ N , 0 ° 1 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 43 ′ N , 0 ° 1 ′ W
Height :	231 msnm
Area :	146.37 km²
Residents :	390 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	2.66 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	22231
Municipality number ( INE ):	22251
administration
Mayor :	Ildefonso Salillas Lacasa

Villanueva de Sigena is a municipality in the province of Huesca in the Autonomous Region of Aragón in Spain . It is in the Comarca of Monegros . The municipality on the Río Alcanadre had 390 inhabitants on January 1, 2019.

history

The place, which was inhabited in prehistoric times, was probably built at the time of the Reconquista . The wife of King Alfonso II of Aragón , Sancha of Castile , donated the monastery of Santa María del Coro here in 1158 for nuns of the Order of St. John , where she died as a nun in 1208. The monastery was disbanded in Spain in 1835 , but was soon settled again and declared a monument in 1923 . It burned down during the Spanish Civil War and was abandoned around 1980, but repopulated in 1985 by a group of sisters from another religious community.

The place also became known as the birthplace of the humanist, physician and theologian Michael Servetus , who was burned to death in Geneva in 1553 .