Valderrobres

The area around Valderrobres has been inhabited for a very long time. Iberian settlements are well documented across the municipality, most notably at Torre Gachero, where funerary steles were uncovered and are now held in the Teruel museum. The town's medieval chapter began with the Reconquista, completed between 1165 and 1170 through a joint effort by King Alfonso II of Aragón and various military orders.

Alfonso II's donation document refers to the valley as "Valle de la peña Aznar Lagaya." By 1175 the territory had been granted as a fief to the bishopric of Zaragoza, which promptly sub-enfeoffed it to Fortún Roberto; a charter of population followed in 1183. After a succession dispute, the lands formally returned to the archbishopric of Zaragoza in 1307, and remained under its lordship until the dissolution of the feudal system. It was under successive archbishops that the castle, the church of Santa María la Mayor, the town walls, the stone bridge, and the hospital were built, the bulk of this work carried out between 1317 and the mid-fifteenth century.

Between October and December 1429, Valderrobres hosted sessions of the Cortes of the Kingdom of Aragón, presided over by Alfonso V, an unusual honour, since such assemblies normally met in royal towns.

You enter the old town across a four-arch Gothic bridge over the Matarraña river, passing through the Portal de San Roque, one of the best-preserved town gateways in the region. Construction of the bridge is linked to that of the town walls, with work beginning around 1390 under Archbishop García Fernández de Heredia. It was built to last: the piers have wedge-shaped cutwaters designed to deflect floodwater and debris.

The town hall sits on the bridge's final span, connecting directly to the main square. The town hall itself is a late Gothic building with the classic Aragonese loggia, a covered exterior gallery, along its upper storey. Modelled on the town hall of Alcañiz, it was completed in 1599 under master builder Antonio de Champanach in the Mannerist style; the date is carved into the stone coat of arms on the façade.

At the top of the town, the castle is the image most associated with Valderrobres and was declared a national monument in 1931. Directly beside it stands the church of Santa María la Mayor, considered one of the finest examples of Levantine Gothic architecture in the province of Teruel.

Valderrobres is divided by the Matarraña river. The newer quarter lies to the south, and the old town rises to the north, reached across a four-arched Gothic stone bridge and through the Portal de San Roque, one of seven gateways in the walls. At the top of the slope the castle and the church of Santa María la Mayor, both Gothic and once connected to each other, form the image most associated with the town.

Most of this was built by the archbishops of Zaragoza, lords of Valderrobres, between 1317 and the mid-fifteenth century, and in 1429 the town hosted sessions of the Cortes of Aragón under Alfonso V. The town hall, completed in 1599 with an Aragonese loggia along its upper storey, was reproduced in the Pueblo Español at the 1929 Barcelona exhibition. Renaissance houses such as Casa Molés and Casa Pereret line the old streets.

Valderrobres 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. Valderrobres is one of 15 members in Aragón, out of 126 in Spain. See all heritage towns in Aragón.