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There’s a joke in Spain that the country has two cities that don’t exist: Murcia, the biggest city that isn’t a tourist attraction, and Teruel, because when the government was building a high-speed railway line through the province of the same name, it simply didn’t add in a stop for Teruel center.
The joke, born out on social media, reflects strangely on what is one of the most worthy small cities in Spain if not Europe at large. Teruel is exceedingly charming, and deserves far more than just a high-speed railway stop.
Located an hour and fifteen minutes northwest of Valencia in the Spanish region of Aragon, Teruel is easily overlooked. Aside from Valencia and its famous climate and coasts, Teruel is three hours from Madrid, two hours from the Aragonese capital of Zaragoza, and two hours from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the city of Cuenca.
But Teruel is worth seeing even compared to these marvels. The city is the center of mudéjar architecture in Spain, a word that means “left behinders” and refers to Islamic North Africans who stayed behind enemy lines after the forces of Christian Spain conquered the country in the Middle Ages. They lent their ideas and talents in brickwork to building beautiful towers and church features that incorporate polychrome wood, stacked arches, glazed tiles, and parapets to the otherwise pointy spires of European Christendom.
Teruel’s mudéjar monuments, along with others of a certain vintage scattered around Aragon, are collectively listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s these monuments, like the Tower of the Salvador, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Mediaville, that put Teruel on the map, but just one share of its many charms.
What makes Teruel special?
Apart from this beautiful antique architecture dating to between the 12th and 15th centuries, Teruel has a lot to see and do. Though the city is small, there is a not insignificant bounty of classic European loveliness to view while strolling the streets. Take for example the pedestrian bridge built by Fernando Hue, that connects the old Teruel to the by-no-means-ugly new Teruel. It was at one point the longest unsupported single-arch bridge in the world, and a thing of both aesthetic and engineering beauty.
On the other side of town, the road is overhung by the largest free-standing Rennaissance aqueduct in Spain. A walk from one to the other will take one through many beautiful squares and streets lined with buildings built in the neomudéjar style.
In the center of town, crowned by the mudéjar tower on the Church of San Pedro lies the Mausoleum of the Lovers—owing its name to a very strange story. It’s a famous story, one that predates the mudéjar architecture and has inspired a dozen accomplished artists to produce works in inspiration of it.
The story goes that a man named Juan Diego from Teruel in the 8th century desired the hand of a local noblewoman called Isabel. Isabel’s family thought Juan Diego’s prospects were unsuitable for marriage, and so the young man joined the army to earn his fortune. Five years later, he returned an accomplished soldier, and asked for Isabel’s hand again, only to be told she was set to marry another. In a private meeting, Juan Diego begged a single kiss—the desire of his five long hard years in war, which, being virtuous, Isabel denied.
The rejection was more than he could bear, and he died of a broken heart. The next day, Isabel saw a funeral procession moving through town. When she learned what happened to Juan Diego, she approached, veiled in black, and asked the procession to halt. Placing a kiss upon his lips, she perished in equal fashion, there upon his casket.
This story was related by the public notary of Teruel named Yague de Salas in a chronicle he penned hundreds of years later. De Salas attributes it to older documents that had come into his possession, and in 1555 two mummies, one of a young woman, and another of a young man, were found interred inside the church where Yague claimed they were buried.
“The Lovers of Teruel” has been reproduced in plays, opera, songs, and three works of art by well-known Spanish painters, and they’re all exhibited there in the Mausoleum where the two mummies—which had once been on public display in an unrelated lord’s manor—now rest eternally in exquisitely carved alabaster sarcophagi.
It’s all quite profound and moving, and unquestionably the most interesting thing to do in Teruel, especially because entrance to the Mausoleum comes with access to the interior of the Church of San Pedro—a breathtaking neoclassical sanctum of dark blue and gold light.
When all that’s over and it’s time to eat, it’s difficult to overlook Jamon de Teruel, which stands out—even in the most pork-hungry nation on Earth—as honored above most. Given the protected origin designation by the EU, Teruel ham is a must-eat if the traveler has taken a fancy to Spanish jamon, and available at most of the restaurants in gorgeous Plaza de Torito, the city’s historic town square.
Pair it with a plate of queso oveja, or sheep’s milk cheese, from the hills of Albarracin—an award-winning cheese soaked in salty, sheepy flavor and coated in rosemary.
Getting out
By far the next best part of visiting Teruel is visiting Albarracin, voted the most beautiful town in Spain during an annual competition. This antique town of rock and adobe is perched on a pinnacle crowning a horseshoe bend in the River Guadalaviar. Stunning towers and medieval apartments rise as high as five stories from the stone streets, and a defensive wall marches up the 20-degree slope on the town’s northern flank.
Along Guadalaviar, rows of birch trees glitter in the breeze, and if one travels far enough upriver, about 12 kilometers beyond Albarracin proper, near Calomarde, it spills through several canyons and waterfalls.
In the town itself, a guided tour lends an explanation to why the town became so beautiful and characteristic, but beyond that, there isn’t so much to do apart from admire the town’s resilience and be grateful that it’s remained so unchanged.
Outside the town, the queseria Quesos Sierra de Albarracin is an award-winning cheesemaker whose small sheep rounds have won gold medals at the World Cheese Awards seven times in six different years between 2010 and 2022. They have a location 2 kilometers or so back down the road one takes to arrive at Albarracin, where the rounds are several euros cheaper than they are sold for inside the town of Albarracin itself.
It’s a beautiful old building with a giant sign that can’t be missed.
Also near Albarracin is a nature reserve called Pineros de Rodeno, a series of hills cloaked in short stocky pine trees that have for years been prized for their properties as sculpting material. The giant tabula in the Church of San Pedro seen above was carved from these pines, and camping among them is permitted.
Many of the hillsides around Albarracin are sliced through with hiking trails varying in duration from 1 to 2 hours, to 1 to 2 days, which pass through old towns and villages, sheep pastures, and pine forests.
It all adds up to a very appealing weekend-length getaway with something for everyone according to the traditions of exploring the European countryside. Teruel should not be missed if visiting Aragon, or northern Spain in general.
PICTURED ABOVE: The Cathedral of Santa Maria de Mediaville. © Andrew Corbley.
