Fuendetodos is a town in the

Campo de Belchite Campo de Belchite is a comarca in Aragon, Spain. It is located in Zaragoza Province, in the transitional area between the Iberian System and the Ebro Valley. The administrative capital is Belchite, the largest town in the comarca. Some municipal ...

comarca (county), in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, Spain, located about 44 kilometers south-east of

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

. As of 2011, it had a population of approximately 178. The town is associated with painter

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, a ...

, who was born in Fuendetodos in 1746, and contains a museum dedicated to his work. The town has nearly 25,000 visitors each year.

Geography

Fuendetodos is located in the Aragonese comarca of

, 44 km to the south of

. It had a population of 178 according to the census of 2011. As of 1 January 2015, the population was estimated to be 144.

History

The town was originally called ''Fuentedetodos'' meaning "source of all." Before its foundation in the 12th century as a recolonized village associated with a castle, it was known for its quarries of "caracoleña" stone. This had already been exploited by the Romans who used it in many buildings constructed in nearby Caesaraugusta. From the 14th century, the village was part of the domain of the family of Fernandez de Heredia, known as the Count of Fuentes. During the

Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Mat ...

, the traditional industry of ice production flourished. In 1724, the stones of the ruined castle were used to construct the new Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. Goya was baptised there. He was born in Fuendetodos almost by chance, since his parents were living in

Saragossa Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

at that time. His mother was from Fuendetodos and his father was entrusted with the work of

gilding Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

the main

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

of the new church. He brought along his pregnant wife and they stayed in the town for several months during which time the painter was born. When Goya was born, the Pignatelly family held the title of Count of Fuentes. They provided support for the young artist who made one of his first paintings in Fuendetodos, in the sacristy cupboard. Goya also came to take refuge in Fuendetodos during the

Second Siege of Zaragoza The siege of Zaragoza was the French capture of the Spanish city of Zaragoza (also known as Saragossa) in 1809 during the Peninsular War. It was particularly noted for its brutality. The city was heavily outnumbered against the French. Ho ...

in 1809, since he was there making sketches to paint the destruction caused by Napoleonic troops. In the 1920s, another Spanish painter, Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta, came to learn his idol's birthplace. He found Goya's birth house, bought it, and transformed it into a museum. He repeatedly returned, also helping the town with the donation of a new school. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Fuendetodos passed from rebel hands to those of the

republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

with the arrival of an anarchist column. The church, being a resistance stronghold, was burnt by the troops, and the altarpiece and Goya's other paintings there were destroyed. Also Goya's birth house was looted and many pieces of the original furniture were lost. Goya's birth house remained a humble tourist place until its renovation in the late 1980s, with the arrival Joaquín Gimeno as mayor of the town. From the 1990s to the present, promotion of his home has turned it into a significant tourist destination.

Economy

The population was traditionally engaged in

rainfed agriculture Rainfed agriculture is a type of farming that relies on rainfall for water. It provides much of the food consumed by poor communities in developing countries. E.g., rainfed agriculture accounts for more than 95% of farmed land in sub-Saharan Afric ...

and rearing sheep and goats. For centuries, the stone quarries (caracoleña), exclusive to Fuendetodos, and the ice industry were important economic activities. It had 22 neverones (ice refrigerators) and ice was sold mainly in the market of Zaragoza providing significant revenues to the people. Today its wind power production, and the services associated with tourism (there are 20,000 visitors annually) have become more important.

Vegetation

Much of the town is covered with the Alepo pine. These had belonged the Counts of Fuentes for centuries, but were later grown on municipal property. Holm oaks dot the hills. Romeral, the Mediterranean scrub, with plenty of black juniper,

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

, sage, and other

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...

ous shrubs, share the territory with

kermes oak ''Quercus coccifera'', the kermes oak or commonly known as Palestine oak, is an oak shrub or tree in section '' Ilex'' of the genus. It has many synonyms, including ''Quercus calliprinos''. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Northern ...

. There are deep gorges carved into the hard limestone of the Jurassic period caused by glacial runoff. These gorges harbor a surprising variety of flora given Fuendetodos' dry environment including: deciduous forests of hackberry, Montpellier maple, turpentine tree can be found as well as five species of fern.

Points of interest

Francisco de Goya's birthplace and the Museo del Grabado de Goya

The

birthplace The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

of the great Spanish painter was built in the early 18th century. A few meters away is the Museo del Grabado de Goya, opened in 1989, which displays Goya's graphic work, including a permanent collection of his work from the series ''Los Desastres'', ''Los Caprichos'', ''Los Disparates'', and ''La Tauromaquia'' as well as materials related to printmaking techniques.

Fuendeverde

The Fuendeverde Nature Space, opened in June 2010, is dedicated to raising awareness of the rich biodiversity of the flora and fauna of Fuendetodos, and the richness and variety of habitats found in the natural environment of the municipality. There is a nature centre with a permanent exhibition and a nature school for workshops in a restored, former farm house constructed over the remains of the castle. There are also guided tours available to surrounding natural hot spots.

Neveras

''Neveras'' or ''neverones'' are stone constructions used for snow storage in winter. This was then transformed into ice blocks to be sold. The ice production industry flourished during the Little Ice Age, reaching its peak in the 18th century. During that period there were 22 working ''neveras'' producing ice for the markets in Saragossa. Its construction style is particular to this area, with a 6 m deep and 6m wide pit over which a false cupule was constructed and topped with a specially shaped big stone. Remains of ''neveras'' are scattered all around Fuendetodos. ''Nevera de la Culroya'' is the only completely preserved example. * See

Ice house (building) An ice house, or icehouse, is a building used to store ice throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwate ...

Church of Our Lady of the Assumption

The church was built in the 18th century, but had to be rebuilt in the 20th century after it was destroyed during the

(1936–1939). The baptismal font, where Goya was baptized, is still preserved in the church. Before the war, there were paintings in the Sacristy cupboard Goya produced when he was young and the baroque altarpiece gilded by his father. When it was constructed it was the church for the wealthy families, since there was another, smaller church in the "El Calvario" neighbourhood; only some remnants of this church remain.

Busts of Goya

In Fuendetodos there are two sculptures dedicated to the painter. The first is a bronze bust of Goya on a three-foot-high base of rough, blue

jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

extracted from quarries in Codo. This monument was designed in 1920 by Julio Antonio and paid for by

Ignacio Zuloaga Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (July 26, 1870October 31, 1945) was a Spanish painter, born in Eibar, Guipuzcoa, near the monastery of Loyola. Family He was the son of metalworker and damascening, damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the orga ...

and his friends in Saragossa. Below the inscription ''A'' GOYA are the words: "For the spirit of the immortal artist, that the glory spread around the world, live in the town that gave birth." And below is the inscription: "This monument was erected by Ignacio Zuloaga and his friends. October 19, 1920." The other bust sculpture, designed by José Gonzalvo Vives, was placed in front of Goya's birthplace in 1978.

Moorish artwork

The town contains the remains of the medieval castle of Fuendetodos. It was built of masonry, after the reconquest by the Christians in the 12th century, and located in the western part of the town. Since being abandoned and then re-used as a source of stone for the construction of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in the 18th century, its towers and walls were used by villagers as barns and stables. A farm built in the 1979 over part of the castle is now the Fuendeverde Space of Nature.

ARTEfuendetodos Gallery

ARTEfuendetodo Gallery is a meeting point for artists and lovers of the art and in its four exhibition rooms one can see works of the great masters of

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

Fuente Vieja

The "Old Source" or "Source of everybody" of the legend is still providing some water, but it was restored for its historical interest, since there is now a regular water supply. It has a Gothic arch door that allow visitors to see the artificial cave where the source of water comes from. Inside the cave there is a Romanic older arch.

Notable people

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hi ...

(1746–1828), artist

References

{{Authority control Francisco Goya Municipalities in the Province of Zaragoza