La Fresneda

Before exploring its streets, it is well worth climbing Santa Bárbara mountain, a hill that was already sacred in prehistoric times. Carved into the rock there are signs of sacred geometry and astronomical observation, among them a trident and an 85-centimetre male figure with outstretched arms. Locals call him «the first fresnedino», and he has become the symbol of this town in the province of Teruel, in the Matarraña district.

Human settlement here dates back to the Bronze Age, but the Iberians left their mark too. At Els Gallipons, close to where the Vall del Ferro meets the River Matarraña, they built a settlement on a strategic site from which to control the surrounding land. The historian Amador Rebullida spent more than thirty years excavating and researching the area, and some of his finds, such as pottery and loom weights, can be seen today in the municipal museum.

La Fresneda's medieval history begins in 1170, when Alfonso II conquered it and included it in the vast grant he made to the Order of Calatrava. In 1283, Peter III granted it the status of town in a document signed in Zaragoza. Its commander played an active part in the struggles of the 15th century: in 1462, following the death of Charles of Viana, he attacked nearby Calaceite, which had sided with the prince, with the help of the townspeople, and that same year he fought alongside the forces of John II against the troops from Tortosa stationed in Cretas.

Conflict kept passing through. The town was besieged in 1643 during the Reapers' War, and in 1706, at the height of the War of the Spanish Succession, it was held by supporters of Archduke Charles of Austria. Later, during the First Carlist War, General Cabrera took it and, before leaving at the end of 1839, ordered the castle and fortified buildings to be destroyed so that supporters of the regent Maria Christina could not use them. Strolling through La Fresneda is, to a large extent, a matter of reading all those centuries of history in its stones.