Cenarbe is an abandoned

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

and

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

village. The locality belongs to the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

municipality of

Villanúa Villanúa (in Aragonese: ''Bellanuga'') is a Pyrenean municipality in Spain in the north of Huesca province, in la Jacetania, set where the Aragon valley gets wider. Its name refers to the "new village" repopulated in the late 10th century. Vil ...

(

Huesca Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...

Aragón Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) 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 south): Huesca, Zaragoza, a ...

). It was located at 1200 meters above sea level. Toponymic with origin in the old

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

''Azenari-be'', soil of foxes, the suffix -''be'' (soil, lower part) would refer to the situation of the village in a small plain at the foot of Mount Vacún 2,114 meters high.

History

Historically it was an independent municipality until, in 1849, it became part (like Aruej) of the Villanúa Town Council, in a process of administrative rationalization that included small villages in larger ones. According to the Dictionary by Madoz, in 1858 it had 182 inhabitants and, apart from the 12th century church of San Pedro, this village also had a tower-house and, as an anecdote, it was noted for the presence of bears. Its inhabitants were nicknamed manzañones. In November 1955, Forestry Heritage began, based on a 1927 Decree related to the construction of the

Yesa Reservoir The Yesa Reservoir is located in the Pyrenees, and is formed with the damming of the Aragon River, in the Navarre town of Yesa (Spain), although the largest area of the reservoir is located in the province of Zaragoza, extending from east to west ...

, the procedures for the voluntary purchase or subsequent expropriation of the land of Cenarbe and the Garcipollera Valley. All this in order to carry out a forced reforestation with laricio pine to stop the erosion of these valleys and the possible clogging of the reservoir basin, which caused the displacement of 400 people from the affected area. The sale/occupation/expropriation process culminated with decree 2899/1966 dated November 10, 1966 and published in the

Official State Gazette An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

of November 21, 1966, declaring the extinction of the local entity of Cenarbe belonging to the municipality of

, certifying its official disappearance. Forestry Heritage created in this area a National Hunting Reserve where

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

were introduced and, in 1995, the General Council of Aragon turned it into a Hunting Reserve. Nowadays, only the ruined remains of the Romanesque church dedicated to San Pedro are still standing, since the rest of the houses were dynamited to avoid problems with the loose livestock that has foresters in the experimental center of Bescós de la Garcipollera and any possible later claim of the neighbors regarding their properties.

References

{{coord, 42, 39, 18, N, 0, 30, 39, W, display=title, region:ES_type:city Former populated places in Spain Province of Huesca