Although it belongs to the province of Zaragoza, there was a time when the area belonged - according to Fuero, although it is also true that some historians questioned it - to a prodigal land in shrines and Marian apparitions: the Señorío de Molina de Aragón; or more concretely, as it was denominated in times, Molina de los Caballeros.

Remember, as significant examples, the sanctuaries of the Virgen de la Hoz, of the Virgin of Montesinos - of the same name as the famous cave of La Mancha, where the most universal of our gentlemen gentlemen, Don Quixote de la Mancha, starred in one of his strange , initiatory adventures- and the monastery of Cistercian nuns of Buenafuente del Sistal.

Although I had known about this peculiar place for some time, it was not, if not by accident, how I came across it on the way to Calatayud, signposted in a detour of the N-II, at a distance of approximately 30 kilometers, of this emblematic Aragonese population; 15 kilometers from Nuévalos and 16 kilometers from an eminently magical place, such as the Monasterio de Piedra and its unforgettable surroundings.

As in other later places of Marian worship, in the environment on which this sanctuary is based, the Celtiberian presence has been confirmed. It is even known that the Romans took full advantage of the thermal properties of its waters, being the place also known by Visigoths and Arabs. The latter, they called it Xa-raba, a term that means water from a forest.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Jaraba is currently - although a simple look at the town, it does not seem so - one of the most prosperous population centers of Aragón, motivated by the source of income provided by its water factory -Sourcelobo, if I remember correctly- and its three spas.

The appearance of the Virgin dates back to the twelfth century, in full development of that exciting historical stage known as the Reconquest, and expanding the paradigm related to the great majority of this type of supernatural events, the protagonists are shepherds

The place was conquered by Alfonso I the Battler and used as froterizo place of the region of Calatayud. From this time dates the primitive church -currently, there is no trace- that was raised at 720 meters of altitude, on a terrace located in one of the imposing gorges of the so-called Barranco de la Hoz Seca.

It is known that for generations, the Sanctuary depended on the canons of Nª Sª de la Peña, of Calatayud; a place nowadays totally reformed but that, in the epoch to which we are referring, let glimpse the existence of a Black Virgin -whose original figure was irretrievably lost in a terrible fire- and the proximity of a religious-military group whose shadow, suspiciously, accompanies with no less suspicious generality such virgins and invocations: the Templars.

As anecdotal data, add that in this place, the earth distills a kind of oil that has, apparently, enough therapeutic qualities to cure some diseases; that there was a thermal pool next to the Sanctuary that, apparently, had similar characteristics and that is approximately 9 kilometers from the Barranco de la Hoz, where another important sanctuary and miraculous focus is located, 10 kilometers from Molina de Aragón: that of the Virgen de la Hoz.

NOTICE: Originally posted on my blog MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM. Both the text and the photographs that accompany it are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can check the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address: https://jc347.blogspot.com/2010/08/zaragoza-santuario-de-la-virgen-de.html

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Ars vtinam more Animvm qve effingere. Posses pulchrior in ter. Ris nvlla tabella foret.

Arte Ojala pudieras representar. el carácter y el espíritu. No habría sobre la tierra. Imagen más bella

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