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Down a path of water and rock

2021-07-24T02:08:27.111Z


The valley of the River Mesa, at the apex of Guadalajara, Soria and Zaragoza, articulates a relaxed route that circumvents gorges, plains, hermitages and castles to the beautiful waterfalls of the Piedra Monastery


Raise your hand who, while driving on back roads, has not once had the somewhat overwhelming feeling that, in the rush to get where they were, they left the best for the road. Very good looking places that he did not stop to see calmly, vowing to return when that blissful calm finally arrived ... and almost never fulfilling it. A bit like precovid life: the rush out of sheer inertia, the endless lists of things to do and to try and to see, the intermittent awareness of leaving many others in the gutter, just as good or better. Maybe this second half-rare and pandemic summer is a good time to pull up to the shoulder, stop the engine and get going. All you have to do is catch a detour off the highway or skip the boarding queues and controls at the airport.

The small regional road that runs through the short valley of the Mesa River, straddling Soria, Guadalajara and Zaragoza, is like a ribbon perched on the landscape that could be blown away by a gust of wind. And a good example that traveling does not have to be synonymous with going very far. I explored it last year, when the rules of the first total stoppage began to loosen, and since then I have been back often and unhurriedly. A humble but noble landscape; fragile but hard, full of nuances for those who stop to distinguish them. The Mesa flows through the Jalón to the Ebro and through this to the Mediterranean, and at times it is Aragonese and Moorish in its well tended orchards, its plains of well-pruned fruit trees and very old walnut and poplar trees, with its labyrinthine system of irrigation channels, channels,dams and old mills that were surely laid out more than a thousand years ago and continues to carry water and life throughout the valley ever since. At times, on the other hand, it becomes more Castilian, on the side of Soria, with junipers and moors that look like having seen the Cid pass (at least), with the ruined rock castles that guarded this piece of land disputed by two kingdoms, with pools and waterfalls where you can take a cold and solitary bath in the middle of August. And it boasts the sober lordship, worth the redundancy, of the Señorío de Molina, which is no longer exactly part of the Alcarria and which from its imposing walled enclosure exercised jurisdiction over the valley for centuries.With good reason, the residents of their towns said that in some of their corners the governors of Aragon and both Castiles could sit at a triangular table to have lunch without leaving their domains.

enlarge photo Interior of the Iris cave, in the Monastery of Piedra, in Nuévalos (Zaragoza).

J. SIERRA

The Mesa River is born without fuss in the municipality of Selas, in Guadalajara, and already runs through depopulated, between moors and poplar groves, to Mochales, a great place to start walking.

Around here the landscape changes suddenly;

the river forms a ford and crosses the town very clean, which seems to have come out of a childhood drawing.

It has a town hall with a good clock in the square, and a good church and good houses;

and above all, good fertile plains and better orchards that refresh it in midsummer, although it is in late spring around here when its rows of cherry trees grafted and pruned for generations look their best.

One of the first peirones of the route appears, typical of Aragon and the lands of Molina: stone pillars that demarcated the entrance and exit of the towns and guided the walkers lost in the snow, crowned by niches with virgins or saints of crooked iron tile and crosses, if they hold up.

From Mochales you can go upstream to a hike of the mountains and snakes, always shaded, where apart from a hat what we will need is good shoes to wade the river more than 10 times following the path that leaves behind old walnut orchards. immense that no one varea in autumn. The prettiest and wildest part begins from the Tormo Melero, an immense stone with the air of a colossal totem planted in the middle of one of the last valleys, and which due to its name must have been the perfect shelter for bees from recently swarmed hives. From here the river is encased in a gorge with riverside forest of ash trees, willows and Montpellier maples, groves of box and honeysuckle, and backwaters where the transparent water invites to splash and soak (of swimming, what is said to be swimming , Nothing for now). As a prize, in the end,there is the beautiful waterfall and corresponding trout pool of the Escalerón, more or less spectacular and deep depending on the flow that the river carries in summer.

It is altogether a pleasant and restful walk, because it is flat and in the shade, and on the way back there will be forces to deviate a little and see the hermitage of San Pascual Bailón up close, on a small knoll, with noble volumes, abundant fountain and wooded meadow to ancient pilgrimages or more modern picnics.

Better not go on the way to avoid temptations to pack the backpack before starting.

enlarge photo A street in Villel de Mesa, in the province of Guadalajara.

MARÍA GALÁN age

Castle in sight

Between Mochales and Villel de Mesa, the valley widens a bit and from the car you can see the good work of its rocky castle, red and memorable even in name: the castle of the Funes.

It is soon understood that this is the important town of the valley, and it is confirmed by the noble house-palace of the Marquises of Villel and its elegant portal with columns and coats of arms.

The extravagance of a neo-Moorish addition is a frivolity that curiously does not clash, because it gives it a romantic air and because it is very Moorish, again, the cool and shady path that leads, between orchards and large poplars, to the pools and waterfalls del Pozo Galano, which honors its name and is cool even on days of heatwave.

enlarge photo The cloister of the Monasterio de Piedra, in Nuévalos (province of Zaragora).

L. VALLECILLOS alamy

It also has a waterfall, and good for bathing, Algar de Mesa, the next town. It is that of La Chorrera, and adorns a valley rich in springs: the Fuente María, the Recuenco and the Navajo Nuevo. There are old hermitages and peirones; one more of the many Cuevas de la Mora, including a legend of enchanted houris, found throughout this land, and an impressive millenary holm oak that will compensate with its shadow whoever walks to it.

From here the river and the road are encased in a first section of the canyons and gorges that will later make it famous, already in Aragon, between Calmarza and Jaraba. No pleasant orchards around here: cantilevers of red rock, whitish vultures and vultures flying over the small road immersed in shade for much of the day, even in midsummer. They can be observed at will just by laying the car on one side or the other of its ditches. And suddenly the notion of a great silence and a sensation of having entered great solitudes by a path of those of you will go and you will not return.

Calmarza is already Aragonese, and Zaragoza to be exact: the hamlet is piled up on a rocky spur, taking advantage of the respite that the river takes between stretches of canyoning. It has a very good parish with traces and a baroque dome, which is worth a visit if we catch it open, and above all a very good bar to make a technical stop for beer and sandwiches, and even to spend the afternoon gathering, with tables in the fresh air and leaning out. to the waterfalls of the Pozo Redondo, which forms the Mesa when the tuff stone is dropped and hammered for centuries. Nearby there are remains of lime scale, the quicklime wells that some money brought to the town in the past, and old barns and sheepfolds in the sheepfolds that are above it. And again, taking every inch of fertile land and every drop of water to the millimeter,First-class orchards that line the many trails that leave and return to town. Depending on the heat, the desire and the galbana of each one, you can go up to the viewpoint of the Buitres to get a complete idea from a bird's eye view of the most spectacular section of the Hoces del Mesa, which lead to Jaraba, downstream, or to walk on foot and on the level, a particularly beautiful section of its riverbed, shaded by pine forests and alder groves, crossed by precarious bridges and under rocky cliffs that, more than vertical, seem to rush over the river.shaded by pine forests and alder groves, crossed by precarious bridges and under rocky cliffs that, more than vertical, seem to pounce on the river.shaded by pine forests and alder groves, crossed by precarious bridges and under rocky cliffs that, more than vertical, seem to pounce on the river.

enlarge photo The sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Jaraba, in the Hoz Seca ravine.

Andrés García getty images

At the steepest bend, the severe factory of the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Jaraba, a kind of dry and dry Mount Athos, clings to the walls with nails and teeth, of the same color and texture as the cliffs from which it hangs.

It is one of many sanctuaries of Visigothic legends prior to the Muslim era, with its timely appearance of the Virgin just in time to prop up the Christian reconquest.

Seen from below, it is both solid and precarious, imaginative and stern, as if in the effort to climb it on such a site those who drew it had forgotten to give it any stone ornaments or flourishes.

Let's not even talk about trees or flowers, because on these crags and cliffs scorched by the hot sun and the cold Siberians, almost nothing does any more.

It is the starting point to tour the gorge of the Hoz Seca, which houses cave paintings.

But in the middle of summer you have to choose the time very well so as not to fall round the bottom of the ravine, which lives up to its name, and end up like the other piles of raw sheep and goat bones that vultures have painstakingly peeled.

Thermal pool of the La Virgen spa, in Jaraba (Zaragoza).

A couple of kilometers downstream, the plan changes completely when you reach Jaraba, because the town has been known since the Romans for its abundant and restorative hot springs. It has up to three spas since the mid-nineteenth century, and the truth is that around here at times it gives the feeling that time stopped just around those years. The luxuries and sophistication of Vichy or Baden-Baden are not to be expected, but the texture and aftertastes of the sensible summers of the old-fashioned petty bourgeoisie, when taking the waters, curing yourself in repose and spending the afternoon strolling was an excellent vacation plan. The one I like the most is Serón, and although it is closed right now, you can well stroll through its leafy park on the riverbank to those of Sicily (which will reopen, in principle, on July 30) and that of the Virgin,operational since March. It has a fake grotto with rockery and streams of salutary water, benches in the shade, a neo-Gothic chapel for masses and rosaries for the matrons of orderly families, a spacious and run-down hotel, and in general a very pleasant stale air, as of story of Clarín or Pardo Bazán, or setting for Jacinta and Juanito Santa Cruz's moderate honeymoon at the beginning of

Fortunata and Jacinta

.

The Mesa leaves Jaraba on the way to its end in the Tranquera reservoir, with still time to form the Paradera waterfalls in the town of Ibdes, next to the Gruta de las Maravillas, which without overflowing the promises of the name Yes, it is a recommended stop, especially for its freshness, because the heat of the steppes of Bajo Aragón is already hot here.

enlarge photo The Aragonese town of Nuévalos, on the banks of the Tranquera reservoir.

Jacques Alexandre age

Hiking mecca

To remedy them and spend the night, and especially to cool off, you can finish the route by continuing a further stretch to the fabulous Monastery of Piedra —which has just reopened to the public—, a mecca for national excursions that everyone in this country, from north to south and east to west, we ended up visiting at least once in our lives. It is not for less, because it is a very interesting landscape and sociological experiment of the 19th century, a precursor of the contemporary amusement park, with its fixed itinerary of waterfalls and caves, and its ruins, restaurant, shop and hotel that today we would call thematic. If what you really want is to take a bath to remove the dust from the road, your thing is to go to another famous spa with more bells, the Pallarés de Alhama Thermal Baths. It has hotels, gardens and an old casino,but the best thing is the transparent lake with warm and hot springs, with its artificial island and its bathing pavilion, something Moorish again. It has one-day tickets to enjoy it.

It is advisable to continue towards Embid de Ariza and the stately and melancholic Casa de la Vega, a very noble work house with a chapel, farmhouse, neglected garden, superb avenues of plane trees and wheat fields. There you have to see well the famous cathedral gall that was already old in the days of the Catholic Monarchs: they call it the Tree of the Encounter because, according to legend, Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón would have seen each other for the first time in its shadow. It seems more documented that it was the Royal Site of his daughter Juana la Loca, and there she would have punished as a widow with her inconsolable grief before ending up locked up in Tordesillas. When evening falls and with the breeze the wheat fields begin to breathe again, one of course is more than predisposed to believe, and almost see, those and other ghosts pass by.

Javier Montes

is the author of

Luz del Fuego

(Anagrama, 2020).

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-24

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