Tarazona

Tarazona's coat of arms credits two mythological founders: Tubalcain built it, Hercules rebuilt it. More concretely, the oldest remains date from the late Roman period, when the city was known as Turiaso — a prosperous settlement whose citizens held full Roman citizenship and minted their own coins. Tradition holds that Emperor Augustus stopped here to recover his health in the waters of the River Queiles.

The most remarkable object from that era is a 15-centimetre bust of Augustus carved in Indian sardonyx, considered the largest piece of its kind in the world and described as the most important Roman find in Spain; it is now held in the Museo de Zaragoza. Restoration work on the cathedral in 2007 uncovered a 100-square-metre Roman mosaic, a necropolis and a late-Roman baptistery beside the portico, with a second mosaic found nearby in 2013 — remains possibly connected to the ancient forum. After the early medieval invasions, Tarazona re-emerged as a significant Visigothic stronghold, and its bishopric is documented as far back as 449 AD, making it one of the oldest dioceses in Spain.

Tarazona's old quarter was declared a protected historic-artistic ensemble in 1965. Its streets are narrow, cobbled and irregular, lined with archways, small palaces and traditional Aragonese houses built in brick, adobe and Roman tile — styles best seen along streets such as Conde, Mayor and Baltasar Gracián. The city is also a notable showcase of Aragonese Mudéjar architecture.

The Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Huerta, consecrated in 1235, is among the earliest Gothic cathedrals in Spain and the finest Gothic building in Aragón. Damaged during the 14th-century War of the Two Peters, it was rebuilt partly in Mudéjar style, so the ground plan is Gothic while the cloister and the exterior of the lantern tower are Mudéjar; later Renaissance work added the crossing portico, interior vaulting and chapel paintings. The bell tower tells the same layered story in stone and brick across three different centuries. The cathedral was closed for a full restoration from 1985 to 2011.

The Episcopal Palace, a Renaissance building rising dramatically over the Queiles, began as a Muslim governor's residence and later housed the kings of Aragón before the bishopric acquired it in 1386. The Church of Santa María Magdalena, the oldest surviving church in the city, has a late-Romanesque apse and a slender Romanesque-Mudéjar tower that serves as the visual landmark of the old quarter. The Mosque of Tórtoles, built under Christian rule, is one of very few Aragonese mosques to survive, retaining its mihrab, a colourful Mudéjar ceiling with Arabic inscriptions and murals from its later conversion to a church.