Albarracín

Long before the town had its current name, this part of Teruel was home to the Celtic Lobetanos tribe, and the surrounding pine forest still holds some of the most significant Levantine rock paintings found in Spain, ranging from Epipaleolithic to Neolithic periods. Under Rome the place was apparently called Lobetum; under the Visigoths, Santa María de Oriente. The town's modern name comes from the Banu Razin, a Berber clan who made Albarracín the seat of their own small taifa kingdom during the Moorish period, al-Banu Razin meaning roughly "the city of the sons of Razin." Their legacy survives in the Torre del Andador and the castle.

The taifa later passed peacefully to the Christian Azagra family of Navarrese descent, who kept Albarracín independent of both Castile and Aragón from 1170 and even established their own bishopric. After James I of Aragón failed to take the town by force in 1220, Peter III finally captured it by siege in 1285, and it passed formally to the Crown of Aragón in 1300. During the Spanish Civil War, control of the town switched hands more than once.

In July 1937 Republican forces seized most of Albarracín in a rapid assault, leaving Nationalist troops and civilians holding out in the town hall and cathedral before reinforcements retook it on 13 July. Albarracín has been a National Monument since 1961, received the Gold Medal for Fine Arts in 1996, and has been proposed by UNESCO for World Heritage status.

The entire historic centre is a protected cultural asset. At its heart stands the Cathedral of El Salvador, a single-nave church with side chapels, notable for its museum's Flemish tapestries depicting the story of Gideon.

The Alcázar, in the old town, has been restored and opened to visitors. Archaeological excavations between 2004 and 2006 uncovered substantial medieval remains inside its walls. Originally an Andalusian fortress built by the Banu Razin in the eleventh century, it continued as the residence of Albarracín's lords through the medieval period before being extensively rebuilt after the Aragonese conquest. The fortress was occupied until the late seventeenth century and then largely destroyed following the War of Succession.

The Episcopal Palace sits beside the cathedral and has a baroque doorway. The town hall on Plaza del Ayuntamiento is a Renaissance building with wooden balconies and a gallery running out over the river. The city walls are of Christian construction. The Torre del Andador, built in Moorish stonework, was later reinforced with a small rectangular enclosure; the Torre de Doña Blanca stands symmetrically at the far end of the rocky spur. A third tower, the Torre de la Muela, once stood across the river but no longer exists.

Albarracín stands at 1,182 metres in the mountains of Teruel, its defences marked by the Torre del Andador, built in Moorish stonework, and the Torre de Doña Blanca at the far end of the rocky spur. The town takes its name from the Banu Razin, the Berber clan who made it the seat of their own small taifa kingdom, and its historic centre has been protected since 1961.

At the heart of the old town is the Cathedral, which keeps an altarpiece by Cosme Damián Bas dated 1566. Beside it, the Episcopal Palace, home of the bishops from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, has a baroque doorway and now houses the Museo Diocesano, with Flemish tapestries, silverwork and sacred art. The Renaissance town hall has wooden balconies and a gallery running out over the river.

Albarracín joined Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España in 2013. The label is awarded by a private association, not the state: a village applies and is audited against around 40 criteria, from how its historic buildings are conserved to the upkeep of its streets, and members are reviewed and can lose it. Albarracín is one of 15 members in Aragón, out of 126 in Spain. See all heritage towns in Aragón.