Mudejar Architecture of Aragon, Spain

Mudejar is often spoken about as Christian architecture executed by the Mudejars, the Muslims who stayed behind in a territory conquered by Christian power. However, this definition is much too simple to successfully explain the complexity of this art developed over several centuries.

Mudejar style is appreciated today thanks to the places that surprise us with the beauty of their hamlets, perfectly designed for the terrain of the landscapes. It is an excellent example of a type of construction that developed a unique technology over a period of almost five centuries thanks to the coexistence of traditions and cultures as well as a combination of building methods.

While Mudejar buildings in cities like Zaragoza or Teruel started a trend and were presented as state-of-the-art movements in the Middle Ages, the valleys would have acted as transmitters of this style, favouring means of communication and influence that materialised in the works of the villages.

A clientele that, in Aragon, was characterized by its historical senior figures: kings, prelates, nobles, priors of military orders and even a pope -Benedict XIII (Pope Luna), who carried out many projects in which the Mudejar working system, known for its extraordinary efficiency and speed, is strengthened by the undeniable beauty achieved by using materials that spring from local valleys and mountains. Here is the emblem of Benedicto XIII, Papa Luna.

But we can´t forget that, in the same way, these materials play an essential decorative role that embellish urban centres without losing the formal integrity of the surrounding towns and scenic landscape.

Other buildings in this city, such as the tower of San Andrés or the remains of the cloister of the collegiate church of the Santo Sepulcro continue to show the importance of Calatayud during its Mudejar period.

Along with the magnificent Mudejar sites of Tarazona, Borja and Daroca, which have preserved some of the best examples of civil and religious Mudejar architecture, Calatayud has stood since antiquity as a city of extraordinary economic, social and cultural influence. This explains its large number of Mudejar style buildings.

The collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor of Calatayud has preserved from its Mudejar construction the work of the master Mahoma Rami.

Apse, cloister and tower are a magnificent Mudejar complex and the tower, standing at 72 m high, is the tallest in Aragon.

Yet it’s in the affluent Ebro and Jalon valleys where this art can really be appreciated: towers, churches, palaces and urban environments in harmony with shapes, colours and textures that form landscapes of breath-taking beauty enriched by variations of light and seasons.

The church of the Virgen de Tobed, in Tobed, and the parish church of Santa Tecla in Cervera de la Cañada, located in glorious hamlets, show us the origin and continuity of these fortress-like churches. Built in just under one century, today they stand as long lasting and functional buildings mirroring the magnificence of nature.

The result is a Mudejar Territory imprinted with sublime locations that are respectful of both the countryside and its inhabitants. These influences are reflected in a unique heritage that transcends the borders of Aragon.