Trasmoz is a village 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 the city of Zaragoza, whic ...

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 Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, with an estimated population of 96. The town has given rise to numerous legends about witches and sabbaths, some of which were recreated by the romantic writer

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida (17 February 1836 – 22 December 1870), better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (), was a Spanish Spanish Romance literature, Romantic poet and writer (mostly short stories), also a playwright, columni ...

. It is the only Spanish town officially cursed and excommunicated by the Catholic Church. The excommunication has never been revoked. Trasmoz is a town steeped in witchcraft. Each year, a citizen is awarded with the distinction "Bruja del Año" (Witch of the year) in recognition of the services for the community. White commemorative plaques are installed on the front door of the awarded person's house.

History

Middle Ages

The origin of the village can be tracked back to the 12th century, when the lordship of Trasmoz was founded. It alternately belonged to the Kingdom of Navarre and the Kingdom of Aragon until Jaime I, king of Aragón, definitively conquered it in 1232. In 1437 Alfonso V put it under the authority of Don Lope Ximenez de Urrea (I count of Aranda).

Modern Ages

After the death of Lope, his two sons fought for the Señorío de Trasmoz. Finally, the youngest, Pedro Manuel Ximenez de Urrea won. Pedro Manuel had a conflict, very close to a civil war, with Veruela Abbey for the irrigation water. The response from the Abbey was a curse and the excommunication of the whole town. About 1530 the Castle of Trasmoz was abandoned. Afterwards, there was a fire in the tower of homage, and a significant fraction of building materials were reused.

Places of interest

Castle of Trasmoz

It was abandoned in 1530. In 1998

Manuel Jalón Corominas Manuel Jalón Corominas (Logroño, 31 January 1925 – Zaragoza, 16 December 2011)

created the "Foundation Castillo de Trasmoz" after purchasing the building. Then the castle was rebuilt. The floor of the castle is hexagonal, with towers in the vertexes, built between the 13th and 15th centuries. The tower of homage is the oldest remain, it is of squared floor, it is located in the center of the castle, formerly it was finished with battlements. Today, the castle houses the "Museum of Witchery".

Church of Santa María de La Huerta

The building is of Gothic style (XVI).The oldest part is the arch of the main door where a

Chi-Rho The Chi Rho (☧, English pronunciation ; also known as ''chrismon'') is one of the earliest forms of the Christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters—chi (letter), chi and rho (ΧΡ)—of the Greek (Romanization of ...

Christogram from the late 13th century can be found.

Nayim's Goal Street

Named to remember the epic football goal scored by

Nayim Mohamed Alí Amar (; born 5 November 1966), known as Nayim (), is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He scored a last-minute goal for Real Zaragoza in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final against Arsena ...

in the final seconds of

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

in the

1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match on 10 May 1995 contested between cup holders Arsenal of England and Zaragoza of Spain. The final was held at Parc des Princes in Paris. It was the final match of the 1994–95 UEFA Cup Win ...

from , it broke the tie, and won the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup for the

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

Monument to the mop

Manuel Jalón Corominas Manuel Jalón Corominas (Logroño, 31 January 1925 – Zaragoza, 16 December 2011)

, the Spanish inventor of the mop and its bucket, was a temporary resident in the village. After his death in 2011 a monument to his most celebrated creation was erected by the sculptor Luigi Maráez.

Cycling and Trekking

Trasmoz Monasterio de Veruela

Agramonte

La Oruña

Miscellanea

# Don Pedro Ramírez and his son were sentenced to death for forging fake coins in the castle. The faked coins are known as "Maravedies falsos de Trasmoz". # Julio Iglesias Puga, father of the singer

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...

, was kidnapped by the Basque separatist

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

. He was in a house in Trasmoz for the 21 days that the kidnapping lasted. He was freed on 17 January 1982 in an operation by Spanish GEO (

Grupo Especial de Operaciones The Grupo Especial de Operaciones (GEO, ; ', GEO), is the police tactical unit of Spain's National Police Corps. History With the intention of fighting against terrorism and several organized crime groups from Spain in the 1970s, in November ...

) involving about 100 policemen. # It is one of the few Spanish villages not to have been covered either by

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expa ...

or by Apple Look Around.

References

{{authority control Municipalities in the Province of Zaragoza