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Zaragoza is the capital of Aragon and, with 699,007 people in 2025, the fourth largest city in Spain. It lies on the Ebro, the longest river entirely within Spain, where it meets its tributaries the Huerva and the Gállego, roughly in the centre of both Aragon and the Ebro basin.
The Romans founded the colony of Caesaraugusta here in 14 BC on the Iberian town of Salduie, and its theatre and walls still survive. The city was later the capital of the Upper March of Al-Andalus and of the Taifa of Zaragoza, whose rulers built the Aljafería, before the Christian conquest of 1118 made it the centre of the Kingdom of Aragon.
Visitors start on the vast Plaza del Pilar, with the Basilica of the Pillar, La Seo and the Lonja, and cross the Ebro on the Stone Bridge. The Roman theatre, the Mudéjar towers of San Pablo and the Aljafería follow, and the Expo 2008 site keeps the Water Tower and Zaha Hadid's Bridge Pavilion.
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar is a cathedral-basilica beside the Ebro, said to be the first church ever dedicated to Mary. Tradition holds that she appeared here on a pillar to Saint James the Great before her Assumption, and many kings and saints have come to venerate her statue.
La Seo Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Savior, stands on the Plaza de la Seo where the forum of Roman Caesaraugusta lay beside the river port. It shares cathedral status with the nearby Basilica of the Pillar, and as part of the Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon it is a World Heritage Site.
The Plaza del Pilar, called the city's living room, is the largest pedestrian square in the European Union, second in Europe only to Red Square in Moscow. It is the only square in Spain with two cathedrals, the Pilar and La Seo, and it also holds the Lonja, the city hall and the Goya monument.
The Lonja de Zaragoza is the most important fully Renaissance building in Aragon, a merchants' exchange built from 1541 to 1551 by Juan de Sariñena with the support of Archbishop Hernando de Aragón. Built of brick like a Florentine palace with Mudéjar touches, it is now a city exhibition hall.
The Aljafería is a fortified palace built in the second half of the 11th century for the Banu Hud rulers of the Taifa of Zaragoza. The only large surviving example of Islamic architecture of the taifa era, it now houses the parliament of Aragon, and its original parts became World Heritage in 2001.
The Roman Theatre of Caesaraugusta was built in the first half of the 1st century AD under Tiberius and Claudius and held about 6,000 spectators, modelled on the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome. Its stones were later reused for walls, and it was uncovered in 1972 and is now visited as a museum.
The Roman Walls of Zaragoza were built under Tiberius in the 1st century and once ran for about 3,000 metres with some 120 towers around Caesaraugusta. The longest surviving stretch, about 80 metres long, stands at the north-west corner of the Roman city beside the Torreón de la Zuda.
The Church of San Pablo is a Gothic-Mudéjar church of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, enlarged several times up to the 18th century. Its octagonal brick tower, added in 1343, is decorated with patterned brickwork, and its 15th-century Gothic portal shows Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
The Puente de Piedra, or Stone Bridge, crosses the Ebro in front of the Basilica of the Pillar and was built from 1401 to 1440 under Gil de Menestral. Rebuilt in 1659 after a flood in 1643 destroyed two spans, it has carried four lion statues, symbols of the city, on its pillars since 1991.
The Torre del Agua is a glass tower 76 metres high built for Expo 2008 to a design by Enrique de Teresa, shaped like a drop of water when seen from above. During the Expo it held the Water for Life exhibition, and a panoramic bar on its top floor looks out over the old Expo site and the city.
The Bridge Pavilion is a covered bridge 270 metres long by Zaha Hadid that served as the main entrance to Expo 2008, linking the right bank of the Ebro to the Expo site. Shaped like a gladiolus lying across the river, it housed exhibition halls on the sustainable management of water.
The Fiestas del Pilar are the week-long festival in honour of the city's patron, Our Lady of the Pillar, starting on the weekend of or before 12 October. The city council made 12 October the local feast day in 1640, and it is also the national holiday of Spain, first introduced in 1918.
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