Heritage

Centuries of history explored on two wheels

Cycling through the Sierra de Guara is not just physical exercise. It’s traversing layers of history accumulated over thousands of years in a territory that holds, among its canyons and gorges, one of the richest cultural heritages of the Aragonese Pre-Pyrenees. The same paths once trodden by shepherds, hermits, and pilgrims are now MTB trails connecting unique villages, hermitages, and landscapes.

Cave Paintings and Megaliths

The Vero River concentrates one of Europe’s most important sets of rock art. On its stone walls, dozens of shelters and caves preserve prehistoric paintings that form the Vero River Cultural Park https://parqueculturalriovero.com/es, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 under the name “Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula” https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/cultura/areas/patrimonio/mc/patrimonio-consejo-europa/itinerarios/presentacion/arterupestre.html.

This example of Aragonese cultural heritage (https://www.turismodearagon.com/ficha/parque-cultural-rio-vero-huesca/) encompasses the three major styles of European cave art: Palaeolithic, Levantine and Schematic. A visual timeline that begins 24,000 years ago in the Fuente del Trucho Cave — the only Palaeolithic site in Aragon — and extends to the agricultural societies of the Neolithic and Metal Ages, which left world-famous naturalistic icons such as the deer of the Chimiachas and Arpán rock shelters. Río Vero Cultural Park: Tourism in Aragon (turismodearagon.com)

The Rock Art Visitor Center, in the town of Colungo, organizes guided tours to the main shelters and activities for all audiences.

The sierra also holds scattered megalithic constructions throughout the territory: dolmens and funerary cists erected between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The dolmens of Ibirque, Belsué, the Losa Mora of Rodellar, and the complex between Almazorre and Paúles de Sarsa are stops that any curious cyclist can integrate into their route.

Romanization, Hermit Saints, and Cave Sanctuaries

Rome left its mark on the Roman road that connected Osca (Huesca) with Ilerda (Lérida), with documented remains in Pertusa and Berbegal, and in the toponymy of a good part of the region’s villages. After the Empire, the slow Christianization of the territory led to the founding of monasteries and hermitages nestled in the most inaccessible corners of the canyons: San Martín de la Bal d’Onsera, San Chinés, San Cosme y San Damián in Vadiello, San Martín de Rodellar, or San Martín de Lecina are some examples that continue to be centers of popular pilgrimage.

Since 2020, the Camino de San Úrbez or GR 268 has traversed this hermitic legacy, connecting San Pedro el Viejo de Huesca with the hermitage of San Úrbez de Añisclo, passing through the hermitage of San Martín de la Bal d’Onsera and the sanctuary of San Úrbez de Nocito. An itinerary that in several sections shares its route with cycling trails in the area. https://www.apiesdescalzos.es/tags/GR%20268/

The Middle Ages. Fortresses, Castles, Churches, and Bridges

For centuries, the border between the Christian and Islamic worlds ran through the Pre-Pyrenean mountains, leaving behind watchtowers, fortifications and small Romanesque churches that dot the landscape of Guara. The ruins of the Salto de Roldán, the Tower of Santa Eulalia la Mayor, Arraro, the Castle of Azaba near Almazorre or Los Santos de Sebil are silent witnesses to that era, sometimes accompanied by churches such as Sescún, La Fabana or the Virgen del Castillo de Rodellar. For information on all heritage sites: https://patrimonioculturaldearagon.es/clasificacion/bienes-culturales/ and http://www.romanicoaragones.com/

Romanesque art has a notable presence in the churches and hermitages of Alberuela de Laliena, Panzano, Santa Cilia de Panzano, Santa Eulalia la Mayor, San Julián de Banzo, Chibluco, Belsué, Nocito, Bentué de Nocito, Bara, Nasarre, Las Bellostas, Sarsa de Surta, and Almazorre, with its greatest treasures in the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor of Alquézar http://www.alquezar.es/ and in the monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Gloria in Casbas de Huesca.

If you’re looking for fascinating interiors, San Miguel de Barluenga, Santa María del Monte de Liesa, San Miguel de Foces in Ibieca, San Fructuoso de Bierge or Nuestra Señora de Treviño in Adahuesca preserve outstanding collections of Frankish-Gothic mural painting from the 13th and 14th centuries. Guided tours at https://turismo.hoyadehuesca.es/parque-natural-de-guara/turismo-cultural. The sierra also holds a living medieval legacy in legends and traditions, such as the medieval depopulated village of Las Casas, remembered in Adahuesca with the legend of “The Grandmothers of Sebil”. All information can be found at the Adahuesca Legends and Traditions Interpretation Center.

And a mandatory stop on any route through Guara are the medieval bridges that span the sierra’s gorges: Villacantal, Molino or Fuendebaños, and L’Albarda in Alquézar, Coda or Cabras bridge in Rodellar, Pedruel bridge over the Alcanadre, Famiñosa in Abiego, Sipán over the Guatizalema, or Diablo bridge in Colungo. https://www.huescalamagia.es/blog/ruta-por-los-puentes-mas-impresionantes-de-la-sierra-de-de-guara/

Modernity, Heritage Renewal, and Depopulation

The 16th century brought prosperity and grand churches to the region — Bierge, Abiego, Azara, Peraltilla — with Gothic structures that were already foreshadowing the Renaissance, following the model of the Cathedral of Barbastro https://museodiocesano.es/catedral-barbastro/. The mansions in many villages reflect the power of the landowning families of the time. Los siglos posteriores dejaron el arte barroco en parroquias y santuarios marianos como Santa María de Dulcis (Buera) o Santa María de la Nuez (Bárcabo).

The great economic and social transformations of the 20th century hit the sierra hard. Between the 1950s and 1970s, rural exodus and depopulation emptied entire villages. The uninhabited places and villages of Nasarre, Otín, San Hipólito, Letosa, and Bagüeste, within the Natural Park’s limits, are now destinations for MTB routes that combine adventure with an inevitable reflection on the territory and its memory. More information at http://www.despobladosenhuesca.com/ and at https://lospueblosdeshabitados.blogspot.com/search/label

Rural Development, Humanized Landscape, and Heritage

The declaration of the Sierra and Canyons of Guara Natural Park (1990), along with the Vero River Cultural Park and the Sobrarbe-Pirineos Geopark, marked a turning point driven by the European Union and the efforts of its inhabitants towards the valorization of natural and cultural heritage. Today, Guara is a benchmark for sustainable development where heritage is an active part of the visitor’s experience.

Numerous ethnological elements of great value and interest have been saved from oblivion and deterioration: flour and oil mills in Bara, Abellada, Almazorre, and Alquézar, weirs with their channels, washhouses, country huts, bordas (shepherd’s shelters) and haystacks, arnales (beehives) and rupestrian apiaries in the surroundings of Lecina, lime kilns, snow wells in the higher areas, well-springs in Nasarre and Adahuesca, and esconjuraderos (places for warding off evil) like those in Almazorre or near the sanctuary of San Cosme and San Damián.

The humanized landscapes that have reached us — dry stone terraces, the Fenales de Used, the Cañada Real de Nocito, and the Cabañera de la Sierra Sebil with its strategic Mesón de Sebil — are part of a living heritage that cyclists have the privilege of traversing slowly, at just the right speed not to miss anything.