Molina de Aragón

During the Caliphate period the area was sparsely settled, its population largely Arabised Berbers. After the Caliphate broke apart, a small taifa kingdom formed here — one mentioned in the epic poem of El Cid. In 1128 the Aragonese king Alfonso I el Batallador took the town during the Reconquista, but his brother and heir Ramiro II ceded it to Castile. It then passed back to Moorish Almoravid hands before Manrique de Lara reconquered it around 1139 and established it as an independent lordship, separate from both Aragon and Castile for more than a century and a half, with its own charter. The lordship covered not just the town but four surrounding districts.

The town's present name dates from 1366, when its people rebelled against a Castilian grant to the French commander Bertrand du Guesclin and placed themselves under Aragonese sovereignty — previously it had been known as Molina de los Caballeros. It returned to Castile in 1375 as part of a royal marriage dowry. Remains of a medieval synagogue still exist in the town. During the Napoleonic Wars the inhabitants resisted the French army, which burned the town in reprisal; the Cortes later awarded it the title "Most Noble and Most Loyal City."

Molina de Aragón holds one of the largest castles in Spain. Alongside it stand the monastery of San Francisco, the church of San Gil — notable for its altarpiece — and the church of San Martín. Stretches of the medieval town walls remain, as does the old Romanesque bridge.

The former Moorish and Jewish quarters are still identifiable, and significant archaeological remains survive in the area known as the Prao de los Judíos.