Palace of the Kings of Aragon: Royal Residence and Museum in Huesca
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish, Umayyad
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page7 sections
History
The Palace of the Kings of Aragon, also known as the Royal Palace of Huesca, is a civil architectural complex in Huesca, Spain, built for the kings of Aragon in the twelfth century in the Romanesque style. It now houses the Huesca Museum and is regarded as a notable example of late-twelfth-century civil Romanesque architecture.
Muslim origins and the Aragonese conquest
The palace was built over the Zuda Tower, a fortified or administrative tower associated with Muslim-period settlements. The tower already existed by the end of the eighth century, during Muslim rule, and an earlier fortified position may also have occupied the site.
Huesca was conquered in stages. Sancho Ramírez began the campaign in 1094, and Pedro I of Aragon and Pamplona completed it in 1096 after the Battle of Alcoraz. The Zuda Tower then became a residence for the kings or for their tenentes, royal officeholders entrusted with governing or holding territory or a stronghold on a ruler’s behalf.
The royal palace and later transformation
During the twelfth century, the tower formed part of a larger palace built with robust Romanesque masonry. Pedro I founded a chapel at the site and gave it to the abbot of the nearby Castle of Montearagón. The Bell Room became associated with the traditional legend of the Bell of Huesca, while the room above it, known as the Room of Doña Petronila, was traditionally identified as the setting for the marriage of Petronilla, daughter of Ramiro II of Aragon, and Ramón Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona.
As the frontier moved south, the palace lost its defensive importance. Its protective walls were demolished, and houses occupied their former space. In 1611, Philip III granted the palace to the University. The University demolished much of the complex and constructed a new building, which now houses the Huesca Museum.
The Palace of the Kings of Aragon has been protected as a Bien de Interés Cultural, Spain’s formal legal category for cultural heritage of recognized importance, since the declaration issued in 2006.
Remains
Surviving royal buildings
The surviving ensemble, known as the Royal Palace, includes a slender rectangular tower crowned with battlements and adjoining dependencies incorporated into the Huesca Museum. The rectangular Hall and the attached Zuda Tower preserve the principal architectural relationship between the palace’s large ceremonial space and its earlier fortified element.
The Hall
The Hall is a rectangular building whose interior was altered in the seventeenth century when its various possible floors were removed. Two pointed Gothic arcades now cover the space. Along its long sides are three arched doorways, some of which have been blocked, while the Zuda Tower is attached to one of its short sides.
The Zuda Tower and ceremonial rooms
Several steps descend beneath an elaborate portal to the ground floor of the Zuda Tower. The room has a ribbed cross-vault, a vault articulated by intersecting stone ribs, whose ribs rest on an impost, a projecting horizontal molding from which the vault springs. Its east and west sides extend into semicircular apses, and two small internally splayed, round-headed windows open in the walls. This room is identified with the setting of the Bell of Huesca legend.
A modern staircase leads to the upper floor, the Room of Doña Petronila. This rectangular room has walls decorated with blind arcades, arches applied to the wall rather than functioning as openings. Single arcades occupy the apse, while double arcades run along the straight sections. Columns with Romanesque capitals support the arcades. A higher room, now destroyed, probably contained the Chapel of Saint Nicholas.
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