Today, we are in Zaragoza, Spain's fifth largest city... sitting on the Ebro River... two hundred kilometres or more from the coast. The Romans settled the area... as a stopping-off point on their trip down from their fabulous gold mine at Las Médules. So much history has occurred since the Romans that little evidence of their occupation remains in Zaragoza... but history keeps turning up at unexpected spots. Just recently, a regular foundation dig for a new building uncovered an amphitheatre. Zaragoza is crazy about the involvement that Caesar Augustus had in their history. The city claims that the city name of Zaragoza is a corruption of Caesar Augustus... after interpretations through the Visigoth, Moors, Aragon and other intervening languages... could be... but a bit of a stretch.
So far, we have visited two buildings that have captured our imaginations... the Basilica El Pilar... and the Palacio de la Aljaferia Cortes de Aragon (a bit of a mouthful).
The Basilica El Pilar is taken seriously as a fully credited pilgrim site... so, out of respect to those tens of people we saw this morning experiencing a spiritual event, please keep any cynical comments to yourself when you hear the basis on which the site became a pilgrim site. Just before her Assumption, the Virgin Mary made a visitation from Palestine up to Zaragoza to give James the Apostle some moral support in converting the Aragon citizens. You will know of the Virgin Mary's apparitions at Lourdes, Faisal, Banneux, La Salette, Higüey and many others... but with Zaragoza, she made a visitation... walking all the way from Jerusalem... carrying a pillar of marble... we couldn't discover if she carried the pillar herself... or if she travelled with a group... for the true believer, these matters of detail are of no importance! The pillar was given central prominence in the building of the first church... an old temple that the Romans let the Christians have. A Gothic church was built on the same spot in 1515... and the present structure was commenced in 1681... with various enhancements made up to this time. But every building activity has left Mary's pillar in its original location. The current Basilica is huge... and to reach the pillar, believers need to bow and lean into an area cut into other columns to kiss a piece of the original column some 6 centimetres square... but it works... you can watch the peoples' faces after the kiss... they radiate... they glow... they lose their stoop... their wrinkles disappear... their grey hair regains colour... their waist line slims. It's a miracle.
Also on show in the Basilica are two shells that fell on the Basilica during the civil war... but failed to explode. The church hung the shells on the wall showing that the Virgin Mary had protected her Basilica. "It's a miracle", said the church... "It's cheap rubbish from Czechoslovakia", said the local militia. Tomorrow, we will see the Cathedral... how a town of modest size can afford both a Basilica and a Cathedral is beyond me.
The second building also had Roman origins... but was bought to prominence by the constructions made by the Moors during the time they occupied Aragon... starting in the 8th century. The Christians managed to regain the city in 1118...but used the Islamic tradesmen to maintain and extend the fort. The decorations inside the fort are exquisite... light and intricate... and of such a standard that the premier buildings in Seville and Granada copied patterns and techniques developed in Zaragoza. The fort had been abandoned for an extended period. Just recently, the state parliament of Aragon needed a bigger building and decided to use the Palacio de la Aljaferia Cortes de Aragon. The region had done a marvellous job in restoring the fort... uncovering many architectural jewels that had been forgotten.
In our travels in Morocco a few years back we saw some palaces built by the Berbers (who constituted a major part of the Moorish empire). But their home base has few jewels that compare with what they built in Spain. It's a mystery how a people could put in an ordinary performance in governing their own country... yet, be so exciting in the way they governed someone else's country. We have time set aside for southern Spain... so will have an opportunity to see more Moorish architecture.
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