Jaca (
Chaca in Aragonese) is a
cityA city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status...
of northeastern
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
near the border with
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, in the midst of the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
in the province of
HuescaHuesca is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca.Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées...
. Jaca, a ford on the
Aragón RiverThe River Aragón or Río Aragón is one of the left-hand tributaries of the river Ebro. It starts at Astún , passes through Jaca and Sangüesa , and joins the Ebro at Milagro , near Tudela.
...
at the crossing of two great early medieval routes, one from Pau to
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
, was the fortified city out of which the
CountyThe County of Aragon or Jaca was a small Frankish marcher county in the central Pyrenean valley of the Aragon river, comprising Ansó, Echo, and Canfranc and centred on the small town of Jaca...
and
Kingdom of AragonThe Kingdom of Aragon was an old kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon , in Spain...
developed: Jaca was the capital of Aragon until 1097 and also served as capital of Jacetania.
Jaca had, in 2004, 12,322 residents and is a premier
touristTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other...
destination in the region for summer holidays and
winter sportA winter sport is a sport commonly played during winter. As a formal term, it refers to a sport played on snow or ice, but informally it can refer to sports played in winter that are also played year-round, such as basketball. The main winter sports are ice hockey and figure skating, sledding...
.
Jaca (
Chaca in Aragonese) is a
cityA city is a relatively large and permanent settlement, particularly a large urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status...
of northeastern
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
near the border with
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, in the midst of the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
in the province of
HuescaHuesca is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca.Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées...
. Jaca, a ford on the
Aragón RiverThe River Aragón or Río Aragón is one of the left-hand tributaries of the river Ebro. It starts at Astún , passes through Jaca and Sangüesa , and joins the Ebro at Milagro , near Tudela.
...
at the crossing of two great early medieval routes, one from Pau to
ZaragozaZaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza province and of the autonomous community and former Kingdom of Aragon, Spain...
, was the fortified city out of which the
CountyThe County of Aragon or Jaca was a small Frankish marcher county in the central Pyrenean valley of the Aragon river, comprising Ansó, Echo, and Canfranc and centred on the small town of Jaca...
and
Kingdom of AragonThe Kingdom of Aragon was an old kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon , in Spain...
developed: Jaca was the capital of Aragon until 1097 and also served as capital of Jacetania.
Jaca had, in 2004, 12,322 residents and is a premier
touristTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other...
destination in the region for summer holidays and
winter sportA winter sport is a sport commonly played during winter. As a formal term, it refers to a sport played on snow or ice, but informally it can refer to sports played in winter that are also played year-round, such as basketball. The main winter sports are ice hockey and figure skating, sledding...
. Jaca was the host city of the 1981 and 1995 Winter
UniversiadeThe Universiade is an International multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation . The name is a combination of the words "University" and "Olympiad"...
s. Its popularity for winter sports has been a motivating factor in the city's failed bids for the
1998 Winter OlympicsThe 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. These Games marked the return of the Winter Olympics to Japan since the 1972 Winter Olympics, when the games were held in Sapporo...
,
2002 Winter OlympicsThe 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States...
and
2010 Winter OlympicsThe 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, will be held February 12-28 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the resort town of Whistler nearby...
. It was again the applicant city of
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
for the
2014 Winter OlympicsThe 2014 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is an international winter multiple sports event that will be held from February 7 to February 23 2014. The host city, Sochi, Russia, was elected on July 4 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee Session in...
, but the bid failed again when it was not selected as a candidate city.
Jaca, an episcopal see in the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
since 1063
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/djacs.htm, is home to medieval walls and towers surrounding an 11th century
RomanesqueRomanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe, characterised by semi-circular arches, and evolving into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed arches, beginning in the 12th century...
cathedralA cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
.
The origins of the city are obscure, but its name apparently reflects the Iaccetani, mentioned by
StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
as one of the most celebrated of the numerous small tribes inhabiting the basin of the
EbroThe Ebro or Ebre is Spain's most voluminous river. Its source is in Fontibre . It flows through cities such as Miranda de Ebro, Logroño, Zaragoza, Flix, Tortosa, and Amposta before discharging in a delta on the Mediterranean Sea in the province of Tarragona.-Name:The Romans named this river Iber...
. Strabo adds that their territory was the scene of the wars in the 1st century BC between Sertorius and
PompeyGnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey /'pɑmpi/, Pompey the Great or Pompey the Triumvir , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
. The Moorish writers mention
Dyaka as one of the chief places in the province of Sarkosta (Zaragoza). When it was
reconqueredThe Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
is unknown.
Ramiro I of AragonRamiro I was de facto the first King of Aragon from 1035 until his death. Apparently born before 1007, he was the natural son of Sancho III of Navarre by his mistress Sancha de Aybar...
(1035 - 1063), gave it the title of "city," and in 1063 held within its walls a council, in which, the people were called in to sanction its decrees: an early milestone in the parliamentary traditions in the Pyrenees.
The mutiny of the garrison at Jaca, demanding the abolition of monarchy and a democratic republic, December 12–13, 1930, was suppressed with some difficulty. It was an early event that presaged the
Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
.
The Diocesan Museum of Jaca (Museum of Medieval Sacred Art) protects Romanesque and Gothic frescoes from some of the most remote locations in the district of Jaca, unsuspected until the first one was discovered in the Church of Urriés, in 1962, where it had been hidden and protected by the painted and gilded retable, or altarpiece.
The Jaca citadel is home to a colony of
Rock SparrowThe Rock Sparrow, Petronia petronia, is a small passerine bird. This sparrow breeds on barren rocky hills from the Iberian peninsula and western north Africa across southern Europe and through central Asia. It is largely resident in the west of its range, but Asian birds migrate to more southerly...
s.
External links