Huesca

Huesca (Aragonese Uesca, Catalan Osca) is a city in Aragon, Spain. Huesca is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name.

Related Topics:
Aragonese - Catalan - Aragon - Spain - Province of the same name

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Its pre-Roman Iberian name was Bolskan, the capital of theIlergetes, a name that was rendered as Osca (Urbs Victrix Osca) during the Roman Empire. Under the impetus of Quintus Sertorius, the renegade Roman and Iberian hero who made Osca his base, the city minted its own coinage and was the site of a prestigious school founded by Sertorius to educate young Iberians in Latin and Romanitas in general. The fully Romanized city, with its forum in the Cathedral square was made a municipium by decree of Augustus in 30 BCE. The name became Wasqah during the Arab domination, when the fortified city was a frontier bastion against the Christian counts and local kings of the Pyrenees. In 1094 Sancho Ramirez built the nearby castle Montearagon with the intention of laying siege to Wasqah; here he met his death by a stray arrow as he was reconnoitering the city's walls. It was conquered in 1096 by Peter I of Aragon.

Related Topics:
Iberian - Ilergetes - Quintus Sertorius - Municipium - Augustus - Sancho Ramirez - 1096 - Peter I of Aragon

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Huesca celebrates its main annual festival in San Lorenzo (Laurence)— a native of Huesca martyred in Rome, 268 AD— which falls on August 10th. The fiesta starts on the 9th and finishes on the 15th. San Lorenzo, born in Huesca, was bishop of Roma and martyrized by Romans, burnt on a grill, so the grill is the symbol of this saint, and appears in many artistic expressions of the city.

Related Topics:
San Lorenzo (Laurence) - Fiesta

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is also the birthplace of film director Carlos Saura and his brother Antonio Saura, contemporary artist.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the Civil War (1936-39) the "Huesca Front" was the scene of some of the worst fighting between Republicans and the rebels.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~