There are villages that surprise with a castle, others with a church or a landscape. Bureta does so by a much less common combination. In just a few streets there is a palace linked to one of the best-known names of the Sites of Zaragoza and a route where fairies, elves and small wooden houses have been integrated into the day-to-day life of the municipality.
Just five kilometres from Borja, history and imagination coexist naturally. While the Palace of the Counts recalls the noble past of the town, some residents have turned part of the urban center and a small forest into one of the most curious corners of the province of Zaragoza.
With just over 200 inhabitants, Bureta offers a different kind of getaway where heritage, nature and creativity come together in just a few hours of visit.
bureta, more than two thousand years of history
As in many towns in Aragón, the history of Bureta began many centuries ago. Celtiberians, Romans, Visigoths and Muslims passed through these lands and left their mark. From some of those periods, there are still remains and elements that are still part of the landscape of the Huecha valley, such as its traditional irrigation system.
After the conquest of Alfonso I the Battler in 1119, Bureta began a new stage linked to the nobility. With the passage of time, the County of Bureta was born and the municipality was forever linked to the family that gave its name to the palace that today presides over the town.
It was there that María Consolación Azlor y Villavicencio, better known as the Countess of Bureta, lived. Her participation in the Sieges of Zaragoza in 1808 made her one of the best-known women in the history of Aragon and explains why her figure is still so present in the town.
WHAT TO SEE AND DO IN BURETA
Enchanted Burette and the Burosque
When walking around Bureta it is easy to find small green footprints painted on the ground. Following them, a tour of Bureta Encantada begins, a project that has filled the streets of the town with houses for fairies and elves, murals and small details scattered around doors, facades and other corners. The decoration appears in different parts of the municipality and turns a walk through its streets into a different experience.
It all started thanks to the Bureteandoando association. The idea was born when a neighbor built a house for the Pérez Mouse and decided to take that initiative to a nearby grove. This is how the Enchanted Burosque was born, a small forest where the neighbors themselves have created, with branches, bark, stones, acorns and other natural materials, dozens of homes for magical beings. Over time, the project grew until it extended to Luchán Park and a large part of the urban area.
Palace of the Counts of Bureta
The Palace of the Counts of Bureta is the most representative building of the municipality. It was built in the eighteenth century on the old tower of the castle and was the place where the Countess of Bureta lived. Today, after a restoration process, it allows you to go through a good part of the family’s history and learn about what life was like in the house.
The guided tour covers its 25 rooms, including the library, several rooms, the chapel and the dining room. The palace also preserves an archive with more than 14,000 documents from the 12th to the 19th centuries. In addition, the complex has a restaurant and rural accommodation.
Church of the Holy Cross
Very close to the Palace of the Counts is the Church of the Holy Cross, another of the places that are part of the heritage of Bureta. Built in the seventeenth century, inside it preserves several altarpieces from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the façade still shows the coats of arms of the old counts, a reflection of the relationship they had with the municipality.
Inside there is also the image of the Immaculate Conception, patron saint of Bureta. Its festivity has its origin in 1834, when a cholera epidemic devastated a large part of España. Given the seriousness of the situation, the count proposed to take the image in procession and, when the illness subsided, the town made a vow to celebrate a festival in his honor every October 23. That tradition continues to this day.
Nature among vineyards
Bureta is part of the Ruta de la Garnacha, a territory declared an Area of Tourist Interest in Aragon for the value of its wine-growing landscapes. The surroundings of the Huecha River, the vineyards and the proximity of the Moncayo complete a visit that can combine historical heritage, nature and wine tourism.
HOW TO GET TO BURETA
Bureta is located about 60 kilometres from Zaragoza. The journey by car takes about 45 minutes along the A-68 in the direction of Borja, from where there are just five kilometres to the municipality.
