Ejea de los Caballeros (); an, Exeya d'os Caballers; (commonly known simply as Ejea) is a town and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the province of

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, part of the autonomous community of

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

, Spain. It is one of the five main towns in the ''

Comarca A ''comarca'' (, or , or ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, ...

de las Cinco Villas'' ("Shire of the Five Villages"). The five villages are Ejea de los Caballeros itself,

Sos del Rey Católico Sos del Rey Católico (in Aragonese: Sos d'o Rei Catolico) is a historic town and municipality in the Cinco Villas comarca, province of Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain. History Located on rocky and elevated terrain, this important border town ser ...

Uncastillo Uncastillo ( Aragonese: Uncastiello) is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, eastern Spain. At the 2010 census,Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain) it had a population of 781. Along with Sos d'o Rei Catolico, Exeya d'os C ...

Sádaba Sádaba (in Aragonese: Sadaba) is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Pl ...

and

Tauste Tauste ( an, Taust) is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. History Sights include the Mudéjar church of Santa María, begun in the late 13th century and finished in the 14th century. It has an octagonal tower, a ...

. They became part of the medieval

Kingdom of Aragon The Kingdom of Aragon ( an, Reino d'Aragón, ca, Regne d'Aragó, la, Regnum Aragoniae, es, Reino de Aragón) was a medieval and early modern kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, ...

in 1105 during the Spanish

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

, as Muslim rule in the region was falling back.

Main sights

The town retains many medieval buildings, including: *the Romanesque church of ''Santa María de la Corona''. It was renewed in 1649–1650. *church of ''San Salvador'' (Romanesque-Gothic transition style). It has a 16th-century portal with Romanesque sculptures *Church of our Lady the Virgin of the Olive (''Nuestra Señora la Virgen de la Oliva''), renovated in 1765 over a pre-existing medieval building

Villages

The municipality of Ejea de los Caballeros comprises nine different centres of population: * Ejea de los Caballeros * * * * * Pinsoro * Rivas * Santa Anastasia * Valareña Rivas and Farasdués are two historic villages that have been dependencies of Ejea for decades. The other six centres were built in the nineteen fifties and sixties in order to settle inhabitants and farmers to grow irrigation crops because of the building of Yesa reservoir and Bardenas irrigation channel that brought water to this villages, among others (Sádaba, Tauste and others).

Culture

The main local fiesta honours the ''Virgin of the Olive'', the local saint. In June, it is also celebrated the patron saint, ''Saint John the Baptist'', in a medieval way. Another local festival commemorates The Vote Day (January 14), an event during the

Black Plague The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

, when the townsfolk voted for the bringing of the Virgin of the Olive across the town to worship her. The plague is purported to have ended that day in Ejea de los Caballeros.

Notable people

Alberto Zapater Alberto Zapater Arjol (born 13 June 1985) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for and captains Real Zaragoza mainly as a defensive midfielder. He spent most of his career with Zaragoza, appearing in 392 official games and scoring 11 ...

, footballer *

Alberto Soro Alberto Soro Álvarez (born 9 March 1999) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Granada CF as an attacking midfielder. Club career Soro was born in Ejea de los Caballeros, Zaragoza, Aragon, and joined Real Zaragoza's youth setup in 2009, from S ...

, footballer who plays for

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

. *

Artistas del Gremio Artistas del Gremio is a Spanish fanfare-type music band, composed of brass and percussion instruments and performing music and street shows. It was founded in Ejea de los Caballeros (Zaragoza) in 2005. Since then has toured the Iberian Peninsula ...

, wind bands.

Twin towns

Marmande Marmande (; in Occitan, ''Marmanda'') is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne ''département'' in south-western France. Geography Marmande is located 35 km north-west of Agen, on the southern railway from Bordeaux to Sète. The town is situa ...

, France *

Portogruaro Portogruaro ( vec, Porto, fur, Puart) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. The city is the centre of a district, made up of 11 ''comuni'', which form the Venezia Orientale with the San Donà di Piav ...

, Italy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ejea De Los Caballeros Municipalities in the Province of Zaragoza