“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore.”
― George Gordon Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage==================================================================
(in northeastern Spain) The city of Zaragoza (or "Saragossa"), capital of the Zaragoza province in Aragon, lies on the south bank of the Ebro River. Toward the end of the 1st century BCE, the Celtiberian town of Salduba at the site was taken by the Romans, who made it a colony under Emperor Augustus with the name of Caesaraugusta. The chief commercial and military station in the Ebro valley, it was one of the first towns in Spain to be Christianized, and it had a bishop by the mid-3rd century CE. After falling to the Germanic Suebi and then to the Visigoths in the 5th century, the town was taken by the Moors about 714. In 778 it was besieged by the Frankish king Charlemagne, who had to withdraw because of a Saxon rebellion in his domain. After being captured by the Almoravids in 1110, Zaragoza was taken by King Alfonso I of Aragon in 1118 and thereafter enjoyed three and a half centuries of prosperity as capital of Aragon. In the Peninsular War it was famed for the resistance of its citizens under Gen. José de Palafox y Melzi during a siege (from 1808–09) by the French, who took the city. Among the defenders was María Augustín, the “Maid of Saragossa,” whose exploits are described in Lord Byron’s poem “Childe Harold.”
+ The image of the multi-domed Basílica del Pilar reflected in the Río Ebro is a potent symbol of Zaragoza. Yet, there is plenty more fine architecture here too, including a turreted castle with an interior like a mini-Alhambra, and some underground Roman remains. Still, Zaragoza's appeal goes well beyond its monuments. Spain’s fifth-largest city has one of the best tapas and bar scenes in the country and is well stocked with the epoch-defining art of local lad Francisco de Goya, the genius painter who was born a short horse-ride away in 1746. The historic center (between the Río Ebro, Calle del Coso, and Avenida César Augusto) is refreshingly near-traffic-free, including the 400 meter-long Plaza del Pilar alongside the famous basilica.
+ A rich blend of the historic and modern, visitors like to stroll in the center of town near San Miguel's pedestrian ways or around the Plaza de los Sitios, where they find boutiques, markets, and souvenir shops. A center for gastronomy, Zaragoza offers food and drink for every budget and taste.
+ The seat of an archbishop, Zaragoza has two cathedrals. The older is the Cathedral of La Seo, or Cathedral of Salvador, mainly a Gothic building that shows some traces of the earlier Romanesque church built on the site of the first mosque erected in Spain. The Nuestra Señora del Pilar Cathedral is dedicated to the Virgin of the Pillar, who is the patron of Spain. Outstanding secular buildings include La Lonja (The Exchange), the Palace of the Counts of Luna (in which the Court of Justice sits), and the 17th-century Palace of the Condes de Sástago y Argillo.
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