3,100 inhabitants, with temples and convents from the 17th century

Ágreda, a small city in Soria with simply 3,100 inhabitants, has been considered one of Xabi Alonso’s favourite settings to disconnect from the noise of fame.

The previous Actual Madrid coach maintains a detailed relationship with the well-known Castilian-Leon municipality, the place he has skilled particularly vital moments each in his childhood and in his maturity.

There, Xabi’s father, additionally a former footballer Periko Alonso, started to go looking within the late 70s, given his love for wooden pigeon looking.

Apparently, it was frequent for Gipuzkoans to maneuver to the province of Soria to observe this exercise.

And, in his case, he did so in Ágreda, the place, after a number of years continuously visiting the realm, the household determined to purchase a home, which made their journeys to the so-called village of the three cultures much more frequent.

This, in flip, motivated each Xabi and his brother Mikel, additionally a footballer, to additionally reside a part of their childhood and lots of summers in Ágreda.

A city the place, as they grew up, they went much less and fewer as a consequence of their a number of skilled commitments.

Nonetheless, it’s a place that every one of them carry of their hearts and that they continually keep in mind for the various moments lived in its streets and squares, as they themselves have confessed on a couple of event.

Una de ellas fue en el año 2018, cuando, precisamente, Xabi, Mikel y, por supuesto, Periko, fueron elegidos para dar el pregón de las fiestas de la Virgen de los Milagros de Ágreda.

Durante el mismo, padre e hijos recordaron un sinfín de anécdotas vividas en el pueblo, entre las que las travesuras realizadas por el exjugador del Real Madrid coparon gran parte del protagonismo.

Open-air museum

Positioned in a strategic place, between the Ebro melancholy and the Castilian plateau, Ágreda has a wealthy and beneficial cultural and architectural heritage on the foot of Moncayo, the results of the passage of Christians, Muslims and Jews by means of the municipality.

Which explains why it is called the city of the three cultures, that in 1994 the Historic Advanced of the city was cataloged as an Asset of Cultural Curiosity and likewise that at this time it’s thought of an genuine open-air museum.

This stands out for the stretch of the Camino de Santiago that runs by means of the municipality and for internet hosting an countless variety of vacationer sights together with temples, convents, standard buildings and ancestral houses.

La Puerta del Alcázar, las Atalayas, el Palacio de los Castejones, del siglo XVII; las murallas cristianas y la casa Natal de Sor María Jesús, que data de 1602, son algunos de ellos.

Se suman también el Palacio renacentista de la Plaza Mayor, que hoy alberga la sede del Ayuntamiento de Ágreda, y diferentes construcciones que constituyen el denominado barrio moro

Desde la muralla, actualmente sede del centro de interpretación del pueblo; la Puerta de Felipe II que sirve de entrada al citado barrio; y el arco de estilo califal del siglo X; hasta los diferentes torreones que se pueden encontrar en su interior, la fuente árabe, la ermita de la Virgen de los Desamparados y el mirador de las Huertas Árabes, entre otras.

La villa cuenta, además, con un total de siete templos religiosos: la Iglesia de San Miguel, de estilo gótico; la Iglesia de la Virgen de la Peña, de estilo románico y la más antigua conservada en el municipio; y la Iglesia de San Juan, también gótica.

También la Iglesia de la Virgen de Magaña, del siglo XVI; la de San Juan Bautista y la Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Milagros, del siglo XVI.

Tampoco pasa desapercibido el Convento de la Concepción, fundado en el siglo XVIII por María de Jesús de Ágreda, cuyos restos descansan en su interior; ni tampoco el Convento de Agustinas y la Sinagoga, una antigua y pequeña iglesia románica del siglo XII que fue construida sobre una antigua sinagoga.

Si bien, estos no son los únicos lugares donde se pueden apreciar los indudables encantos de este pueblo soriano.

A city with plenty of historical past

It additionally has three museums, the Sacred Artwork Museum, situated within the Nuestra Señora de la Peña Church, the Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda Museum, and the Interpretation Heart.

And in addition with a number of strolling and relaxation areas the place you’ll be able to ponder the engaging pure setting of the municipality. The Dehesa Park and the Winter Stroll are two of its nice exponents.

Ágreda has additionally been the scene of royal weddings and essential pacts, in addition to legends and battles.

An instance of that is the connection between King James I of Aragon and Eleanor of Castile that came about within the municipality or the settlement in 1304 of the territorial limits of the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile by means of the Treaty of Ágreda.

Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries it housed a number of households of the the Aristocracy and, as well as, noticed the start of the nun María de Jesús, a cloistered nun of the Conceptionist order who turned one of the crucial influential ladies of the seventeenth century because the advisor to the King of Spain, Philip IV.

All of this highlights the distinctiveness and spectacular nature of a city that mixes historical past and nature in a privileged location.

Along with having conquered its hundreds of neighbors, it has additionally dazzled outsiders who, regardless of not having roots within the municipality, already really feel it as theirs. That is the case of former footballer and coach Xabi Alonso and his household.