Ermita de Sant Jordi de Faió del Matarranya

Fayón () or Faió () is a municipality located 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 th ...

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. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 395 inhabitants. This town is located between the Ebro and the Matarranya rivers in La Franja area; the local dialect is a variant of

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

History

Historically this town and its municipal term were considered part of the Matarranya, but presently it is included in the Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp comarca. During the Battle of the Ebro some of the most bloody battles in the Spanish Civil War were fought in the

Auts Auts () is a mountain chain that is located southeast of Mequinenza, close to the Ebro river in the Bajo Cinca comarca, Aragon, Spain. Its maximum elevation is 434 metres. History These moderately high, dry mountains were the scenario of one of ...

area, about 8 km north of Faió. On 25 July 1938 the 42 division of the Spanish Republican Army successfully crossed the river in this area but was surrounded and massacred in the Auts hills by the

rebels Rebels may refer to: * Participants in a rebellion * Rebel groups, people who refuse obedience or order * Rebels (American Revolution), patriots who rejected British rule in 1776 Film and television * ''Rebels'' (film) or ''Rebelles'', a 2019 ...

.La Batalla del Ebre
/ref> Traditionally Fayón was part of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Lleida The Diocese of Lleida, known as the Diocese of Lerida in English, (Latin, ''Ilerdensis'') is located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Lleida, part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The diocese forms part of the ecclesiastical p ...

. In 1955 the ''Cesaraugustanae et aliarum'' decree of the Consistorial Congregation was published and on the 2d September of the same year, Fayón, along with

Mequinensa Mequinenza (Aragonese and ) or Mequinensa () is a town and municipality of the province of Zaragoza, in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It is located beside the river Segre, close to its confluence with the river Ebro between the Mequi ...

was segregated from Lleida and merged with the Archdiocese of Zaragoza. The ancestral village was submerged by the waters of the

Riba-roja Reservoir Riba-roja d'Ebre is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Ribera d'Ebre in southern Catalonia, Spain. It is the site of a large hydroelectric power station, on the Ebro river. The whole area is mountainous. See also *Puntal dels Escambrons ...

in 1967 and the present-day village was built by

ENHER ENHER, the acronym for ''Empresa Nacional Hidroeléctrica del Ribagorzana'' (''National Hydroelectric Company of the Ribagorçana''), was a Spanish company, based in Barcelona, dedicated to the generation and distribution of electrical energy. Its ...

, the state-owned company that built the dam. After the closure of the nearby coal mines, Fayón has lost about 50% of its population.

References

External links

Town Hall - Official site
Municipalities in the Province of Zaragoza {{Zaragoza-geo-stub