Saragossa

Saragossa (Span. Zaragoza), a city of Spain, formerly the capital of the kingdom of Aragon, by rail 212 miles NE. of Madrid and 227 W. by N. of Barcelona, stands on the Ebro, which divides the city into two parts, and is crossed by a noble stone bridge of seven arches, built in 1437. The city has an imposing appearance from a distance, being adorned with numerous slender towers and spires; but inside the walls it is full of narrow winding lanes, with brick houses of most solid structure, though many of them are now falling into decay. The quarters that have been rebuilt since the French siege are of course different; the streets wide and the houses of better appearance. Saragossa was the Celtiberian Salduba, changed to Casarea Augusta in 25 B.C., of which the present name is a corruption. Although a place of importance under the Romans, there are few remains of the Roman city. One of the first cities of Spain to adopt Christianity (3d century), it afterwards became rich in relics, to which miraculous powers were ascribed. Saragossa was taken by the Goths in the 5th and by the Moors in the 8th century, and was recovered from them in 1118 by Alphonso of Aragon after a siege of five years, during which great part of the inhabitants died of hunger. The most momentous event in its recent history was the siege by the French (June to August 1808 and December 1808 to February 1809), in which the inhabitants, led by Palafox (q.v.), offered a most determined resistance, some 60,000 in all perishing. The services of the 'Maid of Saragossa,' said to have assisted or fought by the side of her artilleryman-lover, seem to have been greatly exaggerated by Southey, Byron, and Sir David Wilkie in treating the theme. Saragossa has two cathedrals, the older a Gothic edifice (1316); the more modern (17th century) boasts of a pillar on which the Virgin descended from heaven (40 A.D.), to which pilgrims still flock. Its defences include the citadel (Aljaferia), anciently the palace of the kings of Aragon and later the headquarters of the Inquisition in this part of Spain. There are also a university (1474) with 800 students, a library of 18,000 vols., an academy of sciences, and a large archiepiscopal palace. The leaning Torre Nueva, dating from 1504, was in 1890 deemed unsafe and doomed by the authorities to demolition. The leading industries turn out cloth, silks, leather, soap, and chocolate. Pop. 93,500.—The province has an area of 6727 sq. m. and a pop. of 415,000.