Day trips from Zaragoza

A town on the Jalón river in Zaragoza province where Celtiberian foundations, a Muslim-built castle, and a grand baroque church mark out more than two thousand years of continuous occupation.

Longares, in Zaragoza province, is defined by a hall church of three equal-height naves and a Mudéjar tower that predates it, rising together as a quiet landmark of Aragonese brick craftsmanship.

Belchite, in Zaragoza province, carries three thousand years of layered history — Celtiberian, Roman, Arab, and Aragonese — and its bombed-out old town stands today as one of Spain's most haunting and intact ruins.

A small Aragonese town in Zaragoza province, Mesones de Isuela holds a castle and a parish church dedicated to the Assumption within its municipal boundaries.

A village in Zaragoza province where a UNESCO-listed Gothic-Mudéjar church, built by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, crowns the hilltop above a castle declared a site of cultural interest.

An ancient Celtiberian mint town on the Aragonese plains, its castle hill, cave wine cellars, and mud-brick collegiate church carrying layers of Roman, Moorish, and medieval history.

The capital of the Los Monegros comarca in Huesca, Aragón, where a Carthusian monastery founded in 1507, a Romanesque hermitage above the Alcanadre river, and one of Spain's largest inland lakes sit within a few kilometres of each other.

Birthplace of the controversial Pope Benedict XIII and seat of one of Aragón's great noble dynasties, Illueca rises above the Jalón valley with a castle-palace that spans mudéjar, Renaissance and baroque in a single building.

A Aragonese hill town above the Río Martín where a ducal castle, a Mudéjar collegiate church, a converted synagogue, and one of Teruel's most complete Calvary routes speak to a layered past of Christians, Jews, and Muslims living side by side.

A hilltop town in Teruel where a Gothic-Renaissance church, a medieval archbishop's castle, and prehistoric rock art above the Martín river mark out centuries of layered history in Aragón.

A village in the Zaragoza hills where a collegiate church blends Romanesque, Mudéjar, and Renaissance in a single building, and the ruins of an old castle watch over the surrounding countryside.

A city of Moorish castles, UNESCO-listed mudéjar towers, and Roman roots stretching back to the time of Augustus, standing in Zaragoza province as one of Aragón's most historically layered stops.

A fortified town on the Jiloca river in Zaragoza province, where a Muslim castle in rammed earth, three mudéjar churches, and a medieval watchtower survive from more than a thousand years of layered history.

A walled medieval town in Zaragoza province, its four Romanesque churches, 16th-century tunnel and 1639 monumental fountain marking it as one of Aragón's most historically layered stops.

A city of layered stone and brick in Zaragoza province, where a Gothic-Mudéjar cathedral, a Renaissance bishop's palace and a tightly packed medieval quarter earn it the old nickname of "the Aragonese Toledo."

Tudela stands on the Ebro in Navarra, its ancient hilltop core layered with Celtiberian, Roman, Moorish, and medieval Christian history, crowned by a Romanesque cathedral that took centuries to complete.

A fortified Aragonese town set on a rocky outcrop above two rivers, its six Romanesque churches, castle, and medieval street plan standing largely unchanged since the twelfth century.

A Jalón river town of Mudéjar towers, three castles, and Celtiberian roots deep enough to appear in the Roman road maps of Antonine — Ateca has been a crossroads of Aragón since long before Spain existed.

A town on the Ebro in Zaragoza province where a Gothic collegiate church holds one of the largest known fragments of the True Cross, and a hilltop castle of the Knights of St John once stood above a medieval city famous across Spain for its glassmakers.

A frontier town on the edge of Castilla y León, Ágreda carries layers of Celtiberian, Arab, Jewish and Christian history within walls that still stand, watched over by a monastery whose founder claimed to have crossed continents without leaving her cell.

A castle town on the Guadalope river in Teruel, where a medieval Calatrava fortress, Gothic murals, and a Renaissance main square mark one of Aragón's most historically layered stops.

A walled medieval town on the Río Martín in Teruel, its Gothic-Mudéjar church, ancient gateways, and deep Aragonese history tied to the Order of Santiago make it one of the most distinctive stops in the region.

A spa town on the Jalón river in Zaragoza province, where thermal springs used since Roman times flow beneath the ruins of a Muslim castle and a Mudéjar church tower.

A Templar stronghold rising from sandstone above the Aragonese plains, where James I of Aragon grew up under castle custody and medieval kings convened their courts for centuries.

A cathedral city on the Camino de Santiago in Huesca, Aragón, where the founding betrothal of the Crown of Aragón was signed and George Orwell recovered from a war wound among its riverside streets.

A hilltop village in Huesca whose very name echoes its Arabic and fortress past, sitting above a river gorge with a collegiate church consecrated in 1099 and a castle that once guarded the frontier between Muslim and Christian Aragón.

Birthplace of Ferdinand II of Aragon, this hilltop fortress town in Zaragoza province still wears its medieval skin — castle, walls, Romanesque crypt and Renaissance palaces stacked up the same rocky outcrop they have occupied for a thousand years.

An abandoned medieval village in Navarra, its castle ruins and fragmentary walls standing silent inside a private estate since the last residents left in the 1950s.

A medieval stronghold on the Jalón river in Zaragoza province, Ariza crowns its hilltop with a Moorish castle cited in the Cantar de Mío Cid and surrounds it with a Gothic church, a palace, and the layered memory of two kingdoms fighting over the same ground for centuries.

A fortified Romanesque church crowns this hilltop village in Navarra, its battlemented towers and three ancient apses watching over the plains of the Ribera below.

A small walled medieval town in Teruel, Aragón, its street plan shaped by a vanished castle and its skyline still marked by two convents built when fewer than 300 people called it home.

The first Romanesque cathedral in Spain, a complete Renaissance citadel, and a position astride the Camino de Santiago at the foot of the Pyrenean pass of Somport make Jaca one of Aragón's most historically layered towns.

A royal frontier town on the Camino de Santiago in Navarra, where medieval palaces line every street and one of the most complex Romanesque church facades in Spain stops travellers in their tracks.

The royal palace of the Kings of Navarre rises above Olite's walled medieval streets, its towers and gardens once counted among the finest in Europe.

A former royal city of the Crown of Aragón, sitting on a history that runs from Iberian settlement through Muslim rule to medieval parliament, Tamarite de Litera carries more weight than its size in Huesca suggests.

A hilltop town in Teruel where Bronze Age rock carvings, a ruined Carlíst-destroyed castle, and centuries of frontier conflict have left their mark on every stone.

A medieval town in Huesca with a pentagonal arcaded plaza, three surviving city gates, and a Gothic-Renaissance basilica built into the rock above the Ésera river, on the edge of the Aragonese Pyrenees.

A triangular medieval village perched on a rocky hilltop above the Tastavins river in Teruel, its old walls, gateways, and Calatrava castle marking it as one of Aragón's most intact examples of Hispanic medieval town planning.

A castle of Arab and Lombard origins crowns a hillside above the Ara river valley in the Aragonese Pyrenees, with one of the largest churches in the range rising below it in the old town.

A medieval fortress town in the Aragonese Pyrenees, where a castle and Romanesque collegiate church rise above the confluence of two rivers on the route to the high mountain passes of Huesca.

A mountain valley town in Huesca where the Crown of Aragon was born, the river Aragón Subordán runs past megalithic monuments and a surviving Romanesque monastery church that once housed 150 monks.

A medieval castle crowns the hilltop above a Gothic bridge and walled old town on the Matarraña river, making this Teruel town one of the most complete surviving ensembles of medieval Aragonese architecture.

A castle among the largest in Spain crowns this medieval Aragonese town in Guadalajara, where old walls, a Romanesque bridge, and traces of Jewish and Moorish quarters survive in the high plateau of Castilla-La Mancha.

A mountain town in the Aragonese Pyrenees, sitting at 891 metres where the Ara river runs through the broad Valle de Broto, with the high peaks of Sobrarbe rising to over 2,000 metres on every side.

A Pyrenean stone village in Huesca, Aragón, where narrow medieval passageways thread between ancient houses and bears still roam the surrounding mountains.

The former capital of the County of Ribagorza, Benabarre sits in the Aragonese Pyrenean foothills of Huesca, its medieval quarter and count's castle marking a town whose history runs from Roman settlement through Arab rule to the courts of Aragón.

Lleida rises above the river Segre on a hill crowned by a medieval cathedral and a Moorish castle, carrying two thousand years of history from Iberian chieftains and Roman legions to the oldest university in the Crown of Aragon.

A village of stone houses and ancient coats of arms in the highlands of Teruel, its Gothic church, ruined castle, and designation as a historic-artistic ensemble making it one of the more quietly significant towns in Aragón.

Artajona rises above the Navarrese plain behind medieval walls that enclose a Gothic church, a stone-arched fountain, and dolmens that predate any city in Spain.

One of Aragón's most intact medieval ensembles, Mirambel's complete circuit of walls, Renaissance palaces, and centuries-old streets earned it protected monument status as an entire urban quarter.

A well-preserved medieval town of 572 people in Teruel's Matarraña comarca, where five ancient gateways still stand, a Templar bridge crosses the river Matarraña, and the limestone mountains of the Puertos de Beceite rise at the edge of the old streets.

A Renaissance town hall, a baroque three-nave church, and a disused railway line turned greenway mark this Tarragona town on the edge of the Ports natural park.

A hilltop town in Tarragona where Pablo Picasso spent formative years painting and first developed his proto-cubism, surrounded by the natural park of Els Ports.

A fortified hill town in Soria whose medieval gates, castle, and stone streets once made it powerful enough to appear in Don Quixote — and whose monuments earned it a place among Spain's most beautiful villages.

A fortified hilltop town in Teruel's Maestrazgo region, Cantavieja preserves a medieval street plan, a porticoed main square, and a castle that changed hands repeatedly during Spain's brutal Carlist Wars.

Capital of its Castilian province, Soria stands above the Duero river with a skyline of Romanesque towers, a Templar monastery, and a castle hill that has been occupied since the Iron Age.

A fortified hilltop town in Castellón crowned by a castle built into the bare rock, its Gothic church, Franciscan convent, and intact medieval walls making it one of the most complete historic ensembles in the Comunidad Valenciana.

A hill town in Teruel whose urban core has been declared a site of cultural interest, standing above the Mora valley in the mountains of Aragón.

A high Pyrenean spa resort at 1,630 metres in the Valle de Tena, reached by a narrow mountain road that once carried shepherds and smugglers over the passes into France.

Where the French and Aragonese routes of the Camino de Santiago have merged into one since medieval times, Puente la Reina is defined by its six-arch Romanesque bridge over the Arga river, still carrying pilgrims toward Santiago as it has for nearly a thousand years.

A high sierra town in Teruel where prehistoric rock art, a baroque parish church, and a centuries-old mountain sanctuary mark the crossing of the GR-10 long-distance trail.

A walled hilltop town in Teruel with a Templar castle, a plateresque church, and a medieval gateway still standing, straddling the Camino del Cid in the high Maestrazgo of Aragón.

Perched on a hilltop in Soria, Medinaceli holds Spain's only three-arched Roman triumphal arch, an Arab gateway still standing in its medieval walls, and a vast restored ducal palace overlooking a Roman-era plaza.

A Templar castle-convent rising from a bend in the Ebro — one of the finest examples of military religious architecture in the western world — looks down over a medieval Islamic quarter whose pottery workshops have never stopped turning.

A former stronghold above the Segre river in Lleida, Balaguer holds a castle that was once home to the Counts of Urgell, a porticoed market square, and centuries of layered history stretching from Moorish fortification to Aragonese kingdom.

A fortified medieval village on the old Muslim frontier in Huesca, its stone streets, Romanesque church, and Gothic bridge intact above a quiet stream.

High on a ridge in Lleida, Àger is dominated by the ruins of a Romanesque collegiate church and castle built during the Reconquista, with a Roman gateway still standing below and Romanesque hermitages scattered across the surrounding sierra.

Capital of Navarra and one of the great cities on the Camino de Santiago, Pamplona carries 75,000 years of human settlement within its medieval walls, Roman foundations, and Gothic cathedral.

A medieval fortress town in Teruel, Aragón, whose Moorish castle, intact city walls, and ochre-red rooftops trace a thousand years of contested rule above a river gorge.

The UNESCO-listed capital of Teruel province, its skyline defined by four Mudéjar towers and the world's most important medieval timber ceiling, a city whose bull-and-star symbol traces back to its founding legend of 1171.

A castle-topped rock above Castellón's high plains, where Templar history, prehistoric cave art, and Arab walls survive in a compact village that rewards those who look up.

A royal Navarrese town on the Camino de Santiago, built across the river Ega in distinct medieval quarters, its Romanesque churches still standing where pilgrims and Frankish settlers once moved through the same streets.

A walled medieval town in the highlands of Teruel, its porticoed main street, intact gateways and UNESCO-listed rock art spanning thousands of years of continuous human presence.

A fortified Navarrese town on the Camino de Santiago whose church of Santa María layers Romanesque origins beneath Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque additions accumulated over six centuries.