We must have whizzed past Teruel on the autopista a dozen times without giving it a second thought. Like most people. We won’t make that mistake again!
It’s a little gem of a city – great food, fascinating history and the best Mudéjar architecture in Spain. And there’s a proper love story too. So romantic, that if Shakespeare had heard about it, he might not have bothered with Romeo and Juliet.
Los Amantes (the lovers) de Teruel
Everyone loves a love story, so let’s kick off with the romance. Los Amantes met 800 years ago, but people are still queuing up to see them today in a specially-built mausoleum.
What’s the story?
Rewind to the 13th century. The couple were Isabel de Segura and Diego de Marcilla. She was a bit posh, from a wealthy family. He wasn’t. Her parents weren’t that keen on the match. So Diego went off to war to make his fortune, while Isabel promised to wait five years for him.
Time went by without a word from Diego. So when the five years were up, Isabel got married to one of the local bigwigs (her dad insisted!). But that very day, Diego returned from the wars, loaded with loot. Too late!
Diego managed to talk his way into Isabel’s house and begged her for a kiss. Isabel played it straight – she said; ‘I’m married, no dice’. At which point Diego dropped dead.
Next stop, Diego’s funeral. Isabel arrives, determined to give his body the kiss that she had denied him in life. At which point, she dies too.
The birth of a legend
After this it all gets a bit vague, and to be honest, a bit ghoulish. Spin forward to the 16th century. Two bodies are discovered in the church of San Pedro.
On not much more than the say-so of a local lawyer, the bodies were declared to be those of Diego and Isabel. Over time, their bodies had mummified, but that didn’t stop them being put on show for everyone from the King of Spain downwards to gawp at. Not perhaps the most romantic of endings.
Now they’re interred much more respectfully. Tasteful alabaster statues of the pair lie side by side, their hands almost (but not quite) touching. The mummified remains are concealed beneath, which seems a lot more appropriate.
Teruel and the Mudéjars
Teruel boasts probably the greatest concentration of Mudéjar architecture in Spain. So much so that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site as far back as 1986. The Mudéjars worked in brick, rather than stone, and decorated their buildings with intricate geometric patterns and colourful ceramic tiles.
The cathedral is perhaps the best example – it has a fantastic decorated ceiling, sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of Mudéjar art.
But who were the Mudéjars?
Quick history recap. The Moors ruled most of Spain for more than seven centuries until they were finally defeated by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. The Mudéjars were the Moors who stayed behind under Christian rule.
Among them were skilled builders – after all, these were the people who created the Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita in Cordoba. They knew what they were about. So they went to work for their new Christian patrons, even building Teruel’s Christian cathedral, using the traditional techniques that had served them for centuries.
To get the best view of that amazing ceiling, book a guided tour. You get taken up to a gallery high above the nave for a close-up look.
And once you’re done inside the cathedral, head for the Museo Provincial nearby. There’s a loggia on the top floor with wonderful views over the cathedral and a panorama over the historic city centre.
Tour the towers!
Teruel is famous for its Mudéjar towers. The city must have been a medieval Manhattan back in the day. You can climb to the top of Torre el Salvador and the Torre de San Pedro for great views over the Teruel skyline (Torre San Pedro is part of the Los Amantes mausoleum tour) There are guided tours to the Torre de San Martin at weekends.
Escalinata de Óvalo
The Mudéjar style even made a bit of a comeback in the 20th century. When Turolenses (as folk from Teruel are called) decided to build a grand staircase to take people from the railway station to the historic centre of town, they built it in the Mudéjar style – even though by now it was 1920.
Plaza del Torico
Teruel is very walkable. Pretty much all the top things to see are within a few minutes stroll of the Plaza del Torico in the heart of the old town. At the centre of the square is the fountain, with an iconic bronze statue of a bull on top.
The bull is part of the founding legend of Teruel. During one battle between the Moors and the Christian Alfonso ll, the Moors drove a herd of bulls with flaming torches tied to their horns right at the Christian army. It didn’t work – the Christians won.
After the battle, a lone bull was found standing on a nearby hilltop. King Alfonso promptly declared that was where he would build his city. A unusual method of town planning, but there you go.
Los Aljibes
Head underneath the Plaza de Torico to see the huge underground cisterns (aljibes) that kept the city supplied with water in medieval times. The entrance is just off the square itself.
From the Plaza de Torico, it’s a short stroll to take in a restored section of the old city wall (Muralla de Teruel) – you can buy a joint ticket that gets you into the underground aljibes as well. Look down at the 16th century acueducto de Los Arcos which brought water into the city from the surrounding hills.
Back in the day, the acqueduct was a serious piece of engineering and meant the city was no longer reliant on the cisterns (aljibes) we came across earlier under the Plaza de Torico.
Teruel in the Civil War
Teruel suffered terrible damage in the Civil War. One of the bloodiest battles was fought out here in the bitter winter of 1937-8 between Franco’s rebel army and the Republican government. The city changed hands more than once and both sides suffered an estimated 110,000 casualties. The back section of the cathedral nave was destroyed by a bomb and large parts of the city were devastated.
Fascinating fact!
All of which would seem to make Teruel an ideal location for a national museum of the Civil War – and it is actually under construction. But nothing to do with the Civil War is easy in Spain.
The whole project has been delayed after the conservative Partido Popular and the far-right Vox party in the Aragon Parliament combined to fight the Socialist government in Madrid over exactly how the dead should be remembered.
The row has been rumbling through the courts and as a result, the museum now won’t open till 2028. The Civil War is still a toxic issue more than 80 years after it ended. More on this here.
Teruel and “España Vaciada”
The city lies right on the toll-free motorway from Zaragoza to the Costa Blanca. Tourist guides often bang on about ‘undiscovered gems’ – I reckon Teruel really is one.
It is actually a provincial capital, up there with major cities like Sevilla or Alicante. But it’s a tiddler by comparison – only 36,000 or so people call it home.
It’s also in the middle of, well, not very much. To get here, you drive across empty landscapes more than 1,000 metres above sea level, through bare hillsides that get a fair old dusting of snow in winter. This really is ’empty Spain’ – España Vacia/Vaciada. Rural depopulation is a real issue in Spain these days.
Teruel even has a political party to remind the central and regional governments to pay it some attention and stop the drift to the big cities. The party is called simply Teruel Existe (no translation necessary!) – and it’s been banging the drum for the city for the last 20 years or so.
We stayed here:
Hotel Reina Cristina, on the edge of the historic old town.
We ate here:
Restaurante El Mercao for great Teruel jamón (Teruel province is famous across Spain for its ham) and cheeses from nearby Albarracín
Restaurante Portal de Guadalaviar, next to the Hotel Reina Cristina
More things to see near Teruel
Albarracín is one of the prettiest villages in Spain, just 40 minutes from Teruel. Check my post here.
Fancy staying in a castle? Try the imposing Parador de Alcañiz, built by warrior monks of the Order of Calatrava, about 1 hour 45 mins from Teruel. Click/tap through the images below.
Heading south to the Costa Blanca? Try my top 12 stopover suggestions here, including Zaragoza, capital of Aragón.
Want to know more about Spanish food and drink?
- My guide to the best of Spanish jamón (ham)
- Finding your way around a Spanish delicatessen
- How to buy the best seafood in Spain
- Ordering the best fish in Spain
- How to buy the best paella
© Guy Pelham