Zaragoza

Zaragoza is the capital of the Autonomous Community of Aragon and capital of the province. Spain’s fifth largest city by population, it was founded as a colony in 25 BC with the name of Caesaraugusta, in honour of the Emperor Augustus. An important town under the Romans, the city was conquered by the Visigoths first and then, in 713, by the Arabs. During the Arabic period, Saraqusta became the capital of a Taifa of great importance, among the most important of the Iberian Peninsula. Reconquered by the Christians as a result of a military expedition led by King Alfonso I of Aragon in 1118, it then became the capital of the kingdom of Aragon. It remained the capital until the Nueva Planta decrees promulgated by Philip V, who sanctioned the unification of the several kingdoms of the Peninsula. Among the major remnants of the past in the town there are the university, founded in 1474, and the Basilica of Nuestra Señora del Pilar.