Jaca (; in Aragonese: ''Chaca'' or ''Xaca'') is a city of northeastern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in the province of Huesca, located near the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón River, situated at the crossing of two great early medieval routes, one from Toulousse to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

and Pau to

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...

. Jaca was the city out of which the

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and

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 ...

developed. It was the capital of Aragon until 1097 and also the capital of

Jacetania La Jacetania ( an, A Chacetania; french: Jacétanie) is a comarca in northern Aragon, Spain. It is located in the northwestern corner of the Huesca and Zaragoza provinces. The administrative capital is Jaca, with 13,374 inhabitants the larg ...

Villages

Besides Jaca town, there are a number of outlying villages in Jaca's municipality, including the ski resort of Astún.

History

The origins of the city are obscure, but its name is apparently of

Iacetani The Iacetani or Jacetani (''iakketanoi'' in Greek, or la, iacetani) were a pre-Roman people who populated the area north of Aragon (Spain). They settled the Ebro valley, specifically in the area along the Pyrenees. Its capital was ''Iaca'' (now ...

origin, mentioned by

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

as one of the most celebrated of the numerous small tribes inhabiting 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 ...

basin. Strabo adds that their territory lay on the site of the wars in the 1st century BC between

Sertorius Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 – 73 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian peninsula. He had been a prominent member of the populist faction of Cinna and Marius. During the ...

and

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

. According to the atlas of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds Jaca was a town where minted coins were madeTalbert, R., (2000). (ed.) Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. Map 25, E3. Also CDROM disc entry Map 25. from the second half of the 2nd century BC, a small number of which are now in the British Museum.Bagwell-Purefoy, P., and Meadows, A., (2002). Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (SNG). Volume IX. The British Museum 2. Spain. SNG No's 775-776 The coins show an unidentified bearded head to the right with an inscription to the left and also have an image of a dolphin. The reverse side depicts a horseman carrying a spear to the right, with an inscription below in Iberian reading ''iaka''. It is unknown when the town was reconquered.

Ramiro I of Aragon Ramiro I (bef. 10078 May 1063) was the first King of Aragon from 1035 until his death, although he is sometimes described as a petty king. He would expand the nascent Kingdom of Aragon through his acquisition of territories, such as Sobrarbe and ...

(1035–1063) granted it the title of City. In 1063 it was the site of the Synod of Jaca. On December 12–13 1930 the Jaca uprising, a mutiny whose leaders demanded abolition of the monarchy, was suppressed with some difficulty. It was an early event that preceded the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

Climate

Jaca has an

submediterranean climate In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and ...

( Köppen: ''Cfb'') bordering a

( Köppen: ''Cfa'') with strong continental influences caused by the city's high altitude of . Winters are cool and summers are warm, with hot daytime temperatures but relatively cool nights. There isn't any real dry season, but the rainiest seasons are autumn and spring. The average

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

is per year.

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a g ...

is common so is

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

, being snow common from late November to early March. Heavy snowfalls are sporadic, and they usually occur during cold spells. Jaca's average annual temperature is . Acceso a la fortaleza de Jaca

Detalle del Capitel del rey David con músicos

Main sights

Jaca boasts several

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

walls and towers surrounding the 11th-century Romanesque

Jaca Cathedral The Cathedral of St Peter the Apostle ( es, Catedral de San Pedro Apóstol) is a Roman Catholic church located in Jaca, in Aragon, Spain. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaca. It is the first Romanesque cathedral built in Arago ...

. The Jaca citadel, a fortification dating to the late 16th century, is home to a colony of rock sparrows. The Diocesan Museum of Jaca (Museum of Medieval Sacred Art) protects Romanesque and Gothic

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

s, some of which were found in the most remote locations in the Jaca district.

Tourism and sports

Jaca is a

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

destination in the region for summer holidays and

winter sport Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold are ...

s. Starting in the early 1970s, the city was transformed from being a small provincial and

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mili ...

town to become the gateway to a mid-tier mountain sports area with two major winter resorts (Valle de Astun and Candanchu) within a 30 km drive of the city. The accompanying urban and infrastructure development in the 1970s and 1980s was controversial, with many claiming that the town lost a lot of its original charm and authenticity to the interests of developers. The development experienced by the city, with the construction of a nationally known ice-skating rink (the Pista de Hielo del Pirineo), a small convention centre (the Palacio de Congresos) and countless second residences had a profound impact on the economy of the Valley (Valle del Aragon), where many of its inhabitants evolved from small-scale subsistence farmera in Jaca and the surrounding villages, to become part of a tertiary economy. Jaca was the host city of the 1981 and 1995 Winter

Universiade The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and " Olympiad". The Universiade is referred ...

s. The city also hosted the 2007 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. Its popularity for winter sports has been a motivating factor in the city's failed bids for the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in th ...

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internationa ...

and

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy Greene Wayne G ...

, which were awarded to Nagano,

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

. It was again the applicant city of Spain for the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympi ...

, but the bid failed again when it was not selected as a candidate city and the games were ultimately awarded to

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents i ...

Gallery

File:Jaca - Castillo de San Pedro - Patio de armas03.jpg, Armour courtyard of the citadel File:Jaca - Castillo de San Pedro - Garita de entrada02.jpg, Statues inside the citadel representing the Spanish tercios way of living. File:Jaca - Catedral - Portada Occidental - Figuras04.jpg, Statues in west-side of the cathedral File:Jaca - Catedral - Interior - Coro01.jpg, Cathedral, interior File:Jaca - Castillo de San Pedro - Iglesia - Fachada.jpg, Church of San Pedro File:Jaca - Casa Borau.jpg, Casa Borau File:Jaca - Plaza de la Catedral.jpg, Plaza de la Catedral File:Jaca - Calle Mayor.jpg, Calle Mayor

References

External links

Official website

Diocesan Museum of Jaca

{{Authority control Municipalities in the Province of Huesca Pyrenees Cultural tourism in Spain Хака