Monzón

Human traces around Monzón go back to the Neolithic, with Bronze Age settlements recorded between the rivers Cinca, Sosa and Clamor. The Ilergetes people held the area before Roman conquest, and the hills around the hermitage of La Alegría still yield Roman remains from a zone that connected Zaragoza and Huesca with Italy.

Under Muslim rule, Monzón was contested between rival dynasties from Huesca and Zaragoza. El Cid took it briefly in 1083, and the Aragonese Infante Pedro reconquered it in 1089 under his father Sancho Ramírez, who created a Kingdom of Monzón for his son. Control passed back and forth until the town was definitively secured by Christians, and in 1143 the castle was handed to the Knights Templar, becoming the order's principal commandery in the Crown of Aragon. The young James I of Aragon was held here under Templar custody during his minority. When the Temple was dissolved, the Monzón commandery resisted until 1309, passing to the Knights Hospitaller in 1317.

The town also served repeatedly as the seat of the Cortes of the Crown of Aragon. In 1528, Emperor Charles V held a General Parliament here and received — and accepted — a personal challenge to combat from the French King Francis I, though the duel never took place. The castle was occupied by French forces during the Peninsular War and retaken for Spain on 15 February 1814 through a ruse orchestrated by Juan Van Halen.

The castle is Monzón's defining landmark, built on a sandstone outcrop and drawing thousands of visitors each year. Its origins are Arab, and the keep is the oldest surviving structure. Centuries of continuous use have left visible layers of construction spanning at least from the early medieval period through to the modern era. Inside the fortress, five separate buildings survive on the hilltop plateau: the Chapel of San Nicolás, the keep, the chapter house, the Dependencias pavilion, and the Tower of James I. It was declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1949. Each year around 24 May, the town holds a ceremony honouring Guillem de Mont-Rodon.

The Cathedral of Santa María del Romeral began as a mosque handed over after the reconquest of Monzón. The current Romanesque structure dates from 1196, built in finely cut stone on a Latin cross plan with three naves, three apses, and a crossing tower. Later centuries added lateral chapels and a Mudéjar brick tower over the lantern. The Romanesque cloister was largely destroyed in 1642, leaving only one arcade with blocked arches, a doorway, and an entrance porch. The cathedral hosted the Aragonese Cortes on many occasions from the 13th through the 17th centuries, convened by rulers including James I, Ferdinand the Catholic, Charles I, and Philip II. It was declared a National Monument in 1994 and is now a co-cathedral of the diocese of Barbastro-Monzón.

On the Plaza de San Juan stands the late Gothic Church of San Juan, built in brick with a single nave, side chapels, and a pentagonal apse. It has a Baroque doorway and a bell-wall in place of a tower. The Hospitallers established it here after 1414, and it hosted a session of the Aragonese Cortes in 1435.