Product Code Database
Jaca (; in Aragonese: Chaca or Xaca) is a city of northeastern Spain in the province of Huesca, located near the Pyrenees and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón River, situated at the crossing of two great early medieval routes, one from Toulouse to Santiago de Compostela and Pau to Zaragoza. Jaca was the city out of which the County and Kingdom of Aragon developed. It was the first capital of the Kingdom of Aragon until 1096 and also the capital of Jacetania.
After Roman rule, the Visigothic nobility took over most of Iberia. However, in 720, Huesca is conquered by the Muslims reaching out as far as Sobrarbe. Muslim advances in Europe had a turn of events after the Battle of Tours (732). By that time, the region of Jacetania would remain as a buffer zone in favour of the Carolingian Empire against Muslim dominions.Joseph F. O’Callaghan A History of Medieval Spain. Cornell University Press 1975, p. 163. By 799 Aureolo stabilised an independent county which gradually evolved until Ramiro I of Aragon (1035–1063) granted it the title of City and capital of the Kingdom of Aragon. In 1063 it was the site of the Synod of Jaca.Joseph F. O’Callaghan A History of Medieval Spain. Cornell University Press 1975, p. 208. As the Aragonese domains expanded to the south, conquering land from Al Andalus, the capital city was moved from Jaca to Huesca in 1096. The loss of capital status did not mean that Jaca lost other urban functions related to its geographical location. Thus, it continued to play its role as a market city and services for its region.Joseph F. O’Callaghan A History of Medieval Spain. Cornell University Press 1975, pp. 219, 485.
The plagues and fires of the late Middle Ages plunged Jaca into a deep crisis from which it would not emerge until the intervention of Ferdinand the Catholic to form a local government. The bourgeoisie was favored by this situation and many became patrons of artists whose results can be seen especially in the cathedral. The city was consolidated as a military post from which to defend the peninsular kingdoms from a hypothetical French invasion. In this regard, Philip II ordered the construction of several fortresses throughout the Pyrenees, including in 1592 the pentagonal Jaca citadel, designed by the Italian engineer Tibúrcio Spannocchi in the fields that had formed the Burgo Nuevo, the neighborhood built outside the city walls.
During the Middle Ages, Jaca was home to Aragon's oldest Jewish community until the 1492 expulsion of the Jews.
On December 12–13 1930 the Jaca uprising, a mutiny whose leaders demanded abolition of the monarchy, was suppressed with some difficulty. It was an early event that preceded the Spanish Civil War. Jaca fell to the forces of the coup against the Second Republic in the early months of the war. August 1936 saw the arrest, rape and execution of the young militant Desideria Giménez Moner, aka La Cazoleta, by Carlist soldiers. Murdered alongside her on 7th August 1936 was Pilar Vizcarra Calvo, a pregnant widow who had recently witnessed the execution of her husband. Before the end of 1936 the father of La cazoleta, Juan José Giménez Artieda was also executed and they were buried in a mass grave, along with more than 300 other victims of the White Terror, in the cemetery of Jaca.
The Jaca citadel, a fortification dating to the late 16th century, is home to a colony of .
The Diocesan Museum of Jaca (Museum of Medieval Sacred Art) protects Romanesque and Gothic , some of which were found in the most remote locations in the Jaca district.
Starting in the early 1970s, the city was transformed from being a small provincial and garrison town to become the gateway to a mid-tier mountain sports area with two major winter resorts (Valle de Astun and Candanchu) within a drive of the city.
The accompanying urban and infrastructure development in the 1970s and 1980s was controversial, with many claiming that the town lost a lot of its original charm and authenticity to the interests of developers.
The development experienced by the city, with the construction of a nationally known ice-skating rink (the Pista de Hielo del Pirineo), a small convention centre (the Palacio de Congresos) and countless second homes, had a profound impact on the economy of the Valley (Valle del Aragon), where many of its inhabitants evolved from small-scale subsistence farmers in Jaca and the surrounding villages to become part of a tertiary economy.
Jaca was the host city of the 1981 and 1995 Winter . The city also hosted the 2007 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. Its popularity for winter sports was a motivating factor in the city's failed bids for the 1998 Winter Olympics, 2002 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Olympics, which were awarded to Nagano, Salt Lake City and Vancouver. It was again the applicant city of Spain for the 2014 Winter Olympics, but the bid failed again when it was not selected as a candidate city and the games were ultimately awarded to Sochi.
==Gallery==
|
|
