Ágreda

Ágreda has been a settlement since Celtiberian and Roman times, though its first documented records date to the Caliphal period. Its position on the border between two medieval kingdoms made it a regular stopping point for royalty and nobility, and from the later medieval centuries several noble families established themselves here, leaving behind the palaces that still form part of the town's heritage.

The union of those kingdoms marked the beginning of Ágreda's decline as a strategic stronghold, a decline interrupted only briefly in the seventeenth century by the figure of María de Jesús de Ágreda (1602–1665). Born in the town, she became a Conceptionist nun, a visionary, and a royal adviser, exchanging letters with King Philip IV of Spain for more than twenty years — correspondence later published by Francisco Silvela in 1885. Her best-known work is *La Mística Ciudad de Dios*. She was also credited, through the mystical gift of bilocation, with evangelising New Mexico and large parts of the southwest of what is now the United States. By the 1842 census the town counted 800 households and 4,100 residents.

Ágreda's historic centre has been listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural since 1994. The Camino de Santiago de Soria — also known as the Castellano-Aragonés route — passes through the town.

The churches alone give a visitor a long afternoon. The Gothic church of San Miguel has a Romanesque crenellated tower and a major altarpiece by Doctor Carrascón. The Romanesque church of the Virgen de la Peña now houses the Museo Comarcal de Arte Sacro. There is also the late Gothic church of San Juan, the church of the Virgen de Magaña, the church of San Juan Bautista, and the ruined church of Yanguas. A small Romanesque building known as La Sinagoga was built over an earlier synagogue. The Convento de la Concepción was founded by María de Jesús de Ágreda herself; her incorrupt body and that of her mother rest there. The Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Milagros and a Convento de Agustinas complete the religious buildings.

Civil and military monuments include the Christian walls, an Arab wall (now the town's interpretation centre), the Puerta del Alcázar, the Puerta de Felipe II, a Caliphal-style Arab arch, the Torreón de la Muela, the Torre del Rollo, the Torreón del Tirador, the Torreón de la Costoya, and the Arab water gate beside the Ermita de la Virgen de los Desamparados. The Renaissance Palacio de los Castejones has a garden attributed to Don Diego de Castejón, and the Renaissance town hall also survives. There are three museums: the Museo de Arte Sacro de Nuestra Señora de la Peña, the Museo Sor María Jesús de Ágreda, and the Centro de Interpretación de Ágreda.