Huesca thematic

Number 81. Febuary of 2005. Spanish language  Principal menu

Muslim wall of Huesca


Perimetral wall
that surrounded the Muslim Huesca


      The Muslim Wall of Huesca dates from centuries VIII to the XV and their more abundant remains are in the zone of urban area popularly denominated "Trasmuro" (behind wall), that it is Ronda de Montearagón street; this is a zone of null construction included between the school of San Vicente and the street of Joaquin Costa, that still conserves its medieval tradition. This wall was practically unconquerable and perhaps for that reason, Huesca is recognized like "invicta" (undefeated), because never was possible to take it to the assault.
     The city was under the protection of 99 towers with battlements, conserving almost exclusively, the call tower of "El Amparo" (The Refuge), located in the proximities of the bridge of San Miguel (next to the convent of "LasMiguelas"); it is of square plant and shows in its superior part the braces (species of projections), that maintained the battlements. Perhaps these constructions were later to the one of wall.
      They are very little the remains that can to be of the Iberian and the Roman wall, as well as the one of the times of the Moors. The only door that had this section, is the of Montearagón, well-known like "La Porteta" (little door) that still has remains of cylindrical tower that equipped it.
      This walled perimeter of Huesca was formed initially by a ring that surrounded the upper zone of the city, designed approximately in half of the slope that defines the knoll of the first urban establishment. A desing, originating of the Roman time, that passed throughout the ring formed by the present streets of Ainsa and Pedro IV to the West, and street from the Desengaño to the East, and that defined its plan to the South by the streets of Zalmedina and San Salvador, but leaving outside enclosure the surroundings of the church of San Pedro. In truth, this is a hypothetical perimeter, of that little indications are conserved, formed by a wall of about three meters of thickness with great ashlars.
      The Muslim time will see extended the walled enclosure with a concentric desing to first one that extends from the foot of the slope, throughout the present Cosos (the principal strees of the city), the street of Joaquin Costa and the Ronda de Montearagón. And it is indeed in the East side - in the flank in which the growth of the city has been more containing -, where the greater number of vestiges of that second wall is conserved .


      They are remains that offer continuity and that suppose an important historical and architectonic testimony, unlike which happens in the West side, where the urban expansion has surpassed fully the plan of Cosos streets, and the wall remain hidden by the contemporary buildings. Some authors maintain that medieval wall was constructed to expenses of its predecessor Roman wall, that could well have been located following the design of the Desengaño street. On the other hand, it is well-known the ability that the Muslim culture demonstrated to reuse the materials "in situ" (at same place), for this reason many of ashlars of the medieval wall would be, in fact, of Roman origin. Perhaps, to give consistency to this theory, we find that the zone between the street of the Desengaño and Ronda de Montearagón, have been well-known popularly like "the stone quarry", reinforcing the concept of "quarry" that that zone of city could have had until medioeval time.
      Of one or another way, the wall of Huesca constitutes a faithful testimony of important cultures located at its moment in the city, that could well deserve a special attention with regarding to the material maintenance by part of all.

      Occasionally a timid intention has been detected -by part of competent organisms - of carrying out projects, and even more than once they have communicated desires to build in the superior part of this wall tract, a pedestrian walk that contains serious realization difficulties to what seems.

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