Manchones is a municipality in the

province of Zaragoza Zaragoza (), also called Saragossa in English,''Encyclopædia Britannica''Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)/ref> is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is Zaragoza, which is also t ...

, Aragon, Spain. According to the Spanish Statistical Institute (INE), the municipality had a population of 123 inhabitants in 2010. The pueblo is 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, ...

of Campo de Daroca, about northwest of

Daroca Daroca is a city and municipality in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, situated to the south of the city of Zaragoza. It is the center of a judicial district. It is located in the basin of Calatayud, in the valley of the Jiloca river. N ...

and just southeast of Murero in the Calatayud-Daroca depression. The Jiloca River passes to the west. The parish church is dedicated to the

Conversion of St Paul The conversion of Paul the Apostle (also the Pauline conversion, Damascene conversion, Damascus Christophany and the "road to Damascus" event) was, according to the New Testament, an event in the life of Saul/Paul the Apostle that led him to cea ...

. There are some remnants of defensive walls from the time of the

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 ...

, when Alfonso the Battler, king of Aragon, forced a route through towards

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

from

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 ...

Situation

Manchones is a small settlement situated at the base of a hill in the valley of the river Jiloca, between

Calatayud Calatayud (; 2014 pop. 20,658) is a municipality in the Province of Zaragoza, within Aragón, Spain, lying on the river Jalón, in the midst of the Sistema Ibérico mountain range. It is the second-largest town in the province after the capital, ...

and Daroca. The pueblo lies on an ancient route between the

Meseta Central The ''Meseta Central'' (, sometimes referred to in English as Inner Plateau) is one of the basic geographical units of the Iberian Peninsula. It consists of a plateau covering a large part of the latter's interior. Developed during the 19th cent ...

, the

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

and the coast of the Levante, which was certainly established in Roman times.

History

Prehistoric remains have been found in the area and there is some evidence of Celtiberian settlement in Manchones. It has been suggested that the name of the pueblo derives from ''mancusos'', gold coins in circulation in Aragon during the 11th century. Diego López de Lobera, who served under Alfonso the Battler during the

, was given the castle of Manchones in 1152. In 1248, by grant from Jaime I of Aragon, Manchones was freed from its dependence on Daroca, becoming part of the Community of Daroca Villages, which was dissolved in 1838.

Fiestas

The festivities in honour of St. Vincent and St. Paul are held in the last weekend of January, coinciding with the feast of St. Valero in Zaragoza, while those in honour of San Roque usually last five days, ending with the feast of the saint on 16 August. On August 15 they celebrate with a pilgrimage and a feast in the town square.

Buildings

The parish church of the Conversion of St Paul was built in the eighteenth century on the site of a medieval church and was restored in 2004–2005. Its chapel is dedicated to the Virgen del Pilar which contains a late 17th-century baroque reredos. A 15th century wooden crucifix is housed in the sacristy. Surviving remains of defensive walls and towers indicate that Manchones was part of the defensive system for Daroca.

Famous residents

* Jesús Ángel Bernal Julián – actor and founder of Teatro de la Estación in Zaragoza. * Antonio Palacios Rodrigo – (1932–1958) bullfighter. * José Luis Roca Millán – (born 1934) past president of the Spanish Football Federation.

References

{{authority control Municipalities in the Province of Zaragoza