If you are interested in a village with a special history and amazing architectural beauty, La Fresneda might be what you’re looking for. The essence of the Middle Ages are so well preserved in the main streets. Below the level of the main road you’ll find narrow alleys that form the neighborhood of the Jewish Quarter.
The main road ends in the triangular “Plaza Mayor”, where you’ll find the monumental 16th century City Hall. Inside you’ll find two prisons. One for people of a higher social level (mainly nobles, clergy and military) and another for common prisoners. The most dangerous prisoners were kept in a five-meter deep well.
A visit to La Fresneda would not be complete without also visiting the Casa de la Encomienda (former residence of the commander of the Order of Calatrava, from the late sixteenth century), the Church of Santa Maria La Mayor (also from the sixteenth century), the Chapel of Pilar (simple temple of the seventeenth century) and the remains of the Calatravan Castle (burned during the First Carlist War), with its cemetery and its natural cistern under a large rock.
In the book “Matarraña insólito”, Spanish writer/researcher Jesús Ávila Granados points out how La Fresneda preserves the necessary elements to consider it one of the most important spiritual centers of the peninsular Prehistory. Most of these elements you will find in the “Cerro de Santa Barbara” (Hill of Santa Barbara), which the writer places as the starting point of ten ley lines (powerful energetic lines) that would connect this mountain with other sacred places in the area.
And if you like sacred places, be sure to also visit the ruins of the monastery “Virgen de Gracia”. This monastery was build in the 18th century. Due to the hard living conditions, the monks abandon the monastery and moved to the center of the town. The legend goes that virgin has appeared in the cave. This makes that every year, on the first Saturday of May, it is still a place of pilgrimage for the Fresnedinos.
