Historical tours Kingdom of Aragon Ainsa
Situated at a crossroads, Aínsa flourished in the Middle Ages as an important commercial town of the Kingdom of Aragon. Today, surrounded by National Park Ordesa and Monte Perdido, a beautiful postcard of the Middle Ages kept alive through tourism.
Aínsa in Sobrarbe County, is one of those places that you can rightly say that “the stones speak.” It is also the only resource that has to certify its long history as several fires destroyed the city in the War of Succession, the last Carlist War and the tragic Spanish Civil War.
But the stones of its houses, its monuments and Romanesque churches are there to remind us of the antiquity of this place.
Who comes to Aínsa is an impressive main square in the Romanesque style is not difficult to imagine scenes of everyday life of a medieval market.
It is a huge square but a sober austere portico adorned with irregular arcs. From there starts the main street where lie the stately homes with their coats of arms on the walls, wood and stone eaves, latticed windows, carved wooden doorways, fireplaces with “Espantabrujas” …
At the end of the street stands the church of Santa Maria, too sober and proud, surmounted by a tower from which you can see the whole valley. Right behind an unfinished fortress from which you can admire three bastions of the XVI century.
This was always a scenario of fighting, the oldest and legendary against Muslims. Every odd year (in 2011 plays) celebrates the Fiesta of the Moors, the umpteenth version of “Moors and Christians” that are held throughout the peninsula.
It is the saga of the Garcia Jimenez seized the town in the Arab invaders after a divine sign, a great cross of fire, they appeared at the top of an oak. This festival takes place the first Sunday in September.