What is it about the medieval villages that we find so irresistible …? You can think about it on your way to Alquézar while you also go back in time as far as the ninth century, more or less.
At that time, there was a lot of trouble around this area, as in almost all of those places that were a border between Muslim and Christian lands. So Jalaf ibn Rasid, after establishing the town of Barbastro, looks for a very high peak and orders to build a fortress to defend against enemy incursions. It is the al-qasr who ends up giving the name to a village that, with its fort and all, would be conquered by Sancho Ramirez around the year 1067.
The castle is quickly taken over by the new settlers, but the Reconquest advances towards the South, and the danger it's moving away little by little. This gives them time to pray more and fight less, and the building ends up becoming a Romanesque Collegiate and transformed over the centuries, as usual. The result is a wonder with Romanic, Gothic, Renaissance elements and walls decorated with frescoes. So, if you had any doubt about visiting it … Forget it.
Between the roofs and the callizos, a kind of covered passageways of which there is still some examples left, it is said that it was possible to walk through the medieval Alquézar without setting foot on the streets.
Something curious that we want to tell you is that those who created this town had an atrocious fear of witches. Or, more precisely, to the storms they dragged mounted on their brooms. That is why it was customary to use a high tower as an exconjuratory, where spells were cast to keep storms away. And that is why in the Collegiate lived the exconjuratories, that is, people in charge of invoking Saint Barbara daily so that the sky remained calm.
But with or without storms, the great city of Alquézar has managed to choose its location very well: a mountain range near the Pyrenees fed by the waters of the River Vero between impressive canyons, and which hides, as if this wasn't enough, caves with valuable rupestrian paintings.
Hiking, canyoning, mountain biking, caving … You will find few places like this to practice so many activities. You shouldn't miss the route through the last stretch of the Vero Canyon, among large limestone walls. You will pass through enclaves such as Picamartillo Cave and walk along footbridges between waterfalls and turquoise pools.
Alquézar. A luxury for all the senses that you will feel and confirm walking and looking out over any of the viewpoints that you will find around the village.
