"Somontano" is, according to the Dictionary of the “Real Academia Española”, the “land or region situated at the foot of a mountain”. The Somontano of Barbastro, the place where Viñas del Vero produces its wines, is much more than this.
Its landscape is a combination of the influence of the nearby mountains of the Pre-Pyrenees - where the “Parque Natural de la Sierra”, the “Cañones de Guara” and the “Sierra de Salinas” are to be found -, the courses of the Vero and Cinca rivers and a horizon of lovely vineyards and groves of olive trees, kermes oaks and almond trees. Added to this great natural wealth, is a historical heritage of great beauty and fine tourist and gastronomic attractions in the capital, Barbastro, as well as in other nearby localities. All these ingredients make the Somontano a place to enjoy.
The mountain ranges of Gabardiella, Guara, Arangol, Balcés and Sevil are in the Parque Natural de Guara where there is an outstanding reserve of fauna and flora. Species such as the lammergeier and other vultures frequent the Park, where specimens of black pine and beech, among other varieties, can also be seen.
This wealth is complemented by the main tourist attraction of Guara: the great number of white-water rivers which cross its ranges from North to South through canyons and ravines. The Vero, the Alcanadre or the Guatizalema are three of these rivers. With the passing of time, their wild waters have moulded nature, smoothing rocks and forming dark gorges of great beauty. Each year, thousands of people enjoy adventure sports activities in the National Park, where there is already a good infrastructure of services for the visitor.
Also important as a tourist attraction are the archaeological traces and the examples of cave drawings which are in the caves of the Vero, in particular, the Cueva de la Fuente del Trucho, where the only Palaeolithic paintings which exist in Aragon are conserved, between 10,000 and 20,000 years old. Various bodies have set up the “Parque Cultural del Río Vero” project and have created the ”Centro de Interpretación de Arte Rupestre del Río Vero” in the village of Colungo. Here, there is an exhibition site where, from the end of this year onwards, the figures of two full-sized Homo Sapiens will serve as guides to the visitors and will explain to them how the cave paintings were carried out in the area.
The monumental attractions The strategic situation of Babastro, a city located on the route between Huesca and Lérida, and between the plain and the different regions of the Pyrenees, was the key to the importance held by the capital of the Somontano in the past. It has been strengthened today with the opening up of new communications and opportunities linked to enterprise and tourism. The relevance which this city acquired left an abundance of monuments and buildings in it which are well worth visiting.
The cathedral, dedicated to the Ascension, began to be built in the first third of the 16th Century on the site of the mosque and is, without doubt, the city’s finest example of architecture and art. It was declared a national monument in 1940. Inspired in the tradition of the Gothic temples, although with modifications typical of the Renaissance period, it is made up of three naves, which finish in polygonal apses. Its beautiful star-shaped domes are supported by six fine columns some fifteen metres high. The cathedral was extended and decorated over the next two centuries, and this is why it also has many Baroque touches, especially in the chapels and various altarpieces.
An outstanding part of the monument is the largest altarpiece, with an alabaster base, which was designed and made - at least partly - by the artist Damián Forment, one of the finest Renaissance sculptors who left his mark in Aragon. Also of great interest in the cathedral are the dome, the skylight and the altarpiece in the San Victorián chapel, the organ and the choir. Worth a special mention is the tower, which is detached and situated at the head of the temple, built on top of the minaret of the mosque.
Other examples of the rich historical and artistic heritage of the capital of the Somontano are the Episcopal palace, built in the late 16th Century and early 17th Century, the diocesan museum, the palace of the Argensola (presently the culture hall), the town hall and the churches of the Escolapias and of San Francisco.
In the area surrounding the city of Barbastro is the Santuario de la Virgen del Pueyo, which dates from the 14th Century and which was renovated in the 17th and 18th Centuries. El Pueyo, an emblematic building in the landscape of the Somontano, is also a meeting place for the inhabitants of the different localities of the region, who gather together each year, during the month of May, to celebrate their “romerías” (gatherings at a local shrine).
Other towns close to Barbastro, such as Alquézar - which has conserved almost intact the remains of its Medieval past -, Colungo, El Grado or Naval, offer abundant examples of the artistic and architectural wealth which the region inherited from the past.
The Santuario de Torreciudad, an international pilgrimage centre which is visited each year by the faithful in their thousands, is also very close to the capital of the Somontano. Torreciudad is situated on the banks of the El Grado reservoir and is an obligatory destination for those people who are travelling the Route of the Virgin between Lourdes (France) and the Basilica de El Pilar of Zaragoza.
