Épila

Archaeological excavations place the earliest human settlement at Cabezo de Ballesteros, within the current town limits. Historians identify this as the Celtiberian settlement of Bispolis, later known to the Romans as Segontia — interpreted as "second city" — a stop on the Antonine Itinerary road connecting Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) with Augusta Emerita (Mérida). The old bridge over the Jalón river dates from this Roman period.

Segontia allied with the Numantine Celtiberians against Rome and was destroyed after the Roman victory. The Visigoths took Épila around 473 AD, followed by Muslim occupation in 714. The Muslims later built the castle.

Alfonso I of Aragon, known as "the Battler," reconquered Épila in 1119, allowing the Muslim population to remain in outer districts with their property and rights intact. In 1294 James II of Aragon sold the town and castle to the nobleman Artal de Alagón. Following a battle in 1348 in which Peter IV of Aragon defeated the Aragonese Union, the town passed through several noble hands before being sold in 1393 to Lope Ximénez de Urrea, whose family held it for centuries as Counts of Aranda.

In 1570, Juan Jiménez de Urrea and Juan Enríquez founded the third Augustinian convent in Aragon, which also ran a school for poor children funded by an estate ceded by the Counts of Aranda.

Épila's most prominent monument is its large baroque-classicist church, construction of which began in 1722 under the influence of Nuestra Señora del Portillo in Zaragoza. The main fabric and decoration were complete by 1798, when the church was formally blessed. It has three naves of equal height, a tripartite straight chancel, and barrel-vaulted ceilings decorated with mural paintings. The monumental west façade — considered one of the finest examples of Aragonese architecture of its period — features a tetrastyle frontispiece of pilasters on a high base, a triangular pediment, and two flanking towers, though only the right-hand tower was originally finished. The second tower was completed and inaugurated on 16 January 2011, with Matías Sanz, son of Agustín, having contributed to the finishing of the first.

On the hill above the town, a group of stone blocks marks the site of the now-vanished castle, and nearby stands an old bridge on the former Roman road. The late Romanesque hermitage of Santa María Magdalena is the oldest surviving Christian structure in Épila. Other buildings worth noting include the Palace of the Counts of Aranda, the house where the martyr San Pedro Arbués was born, the Casa de Mareca (formerly occupied by the Jesuits, now in ruins and privately owned), and the unusual Casa de las Yedras, whose ivy-covered façade creates a natural insulating effect. The surrounding natural heritage includes the Fuente de la Cascarrera, the olive groves at the Sanctuary of Rodanas, the Cueva del Gato, and the river beaches at Mareca.