Fuente de los incrédulos

Ramón de Pignatelli was an "enlightened" man. He was prime minister in the 18th century. The works for the irrigation system were started in 1738, but didn't go very fast until Pignatelli was in charge. They got as far as Zaragoza in 1786, commemorated by the "unbelievers' fountain"; nothing to do with religion  but to celebrate a work of engineering delayed for a couple of centuries and which some people believed would never bring the water to Zaragoza. 

Wikipedia says:  "When Ramón Pignatelli started to build a canal from the Cantabrian sea to the Mediterranean, many people laughed at the idea. When the waters reached Zaragoza, he ordered a fountain to be built to celebrate it, as the inscription says: "to convince the incredulous and to relieve passers-by" ("Incredulorum convictioni et viatorum commodo" Anno MDCCLXXXVI) Thus the fountain was proof of the success of the enterprise and a joke directed towards those who had not believed it was possible."

Sleeping woman

In the centre of Zaragoza, surrounded by traffic, a woman lies sleeping. She rests her head on ears of wheat. 

La siesta, by Enrique Galcera, 1963 in the Plaza del Paraíso. I love this sculpture. 

I found the information in a blog called Lo que veo en Zaragoza: http://loqueveoenzaragoza.blogspot.com.es/p/estatuas.html

Felipe Sanclemente y Romeu

In the centre of Zaragoza, just a few years ago they put up a bust of one of the heroes of the first siege of Zaragoza, Felipe Sanclemente y Romeu. Born in Barbastro in 1758, died in Zaragoza in 1815.
He was 50 when he lost his sons to the French onslaught. He used his personal wealth to provide for the defenders, but also took part in the fight, falling wounded.

After the French were turned out by the Spanish in 1813, he was able to return to Zaragoza from Cádiz, where he had fled, being crippled and unable to fight. He was honoured by the city he had given everything to defend.

Zaragoza

On Saturday we went on a guided tour of Rennaissance buildings in Zaragoza. Here are some things I took photos of along the way.

La Lonja

La Seo

My favourite, Mudejar wall, la Seo

El Arco del Dean

Group

In the valley

Yesterday we went to Huesca to see some friends. It was dry and windy. You could see the snow on the nearby Sierra de Guara, but not in Huesca itself; it is only November after all!
After dinner we went for a long blowy walk from the city, under the motorway to the chapel of Loreto, dedicated to the parents of St Lawrence, the local saint who was a deacon in Rome, executed by a vindictive prefect, roasted on a griddle....in the 3rd century. The parents were called Orencio and Paciencia, apparently. Saints, of course.
Well anyway, the chapel isn't very exciting on the outside, but it was a lovely walk, and just after we started back towards Huesca we saw these olives.

Just turning from olive green towards black, they were beautiful!

I'm not a great eater of olives, but in my house only Aragonese olives are eaten, usually bitter, black wrinkly ones. 

Snow

It snowed last night and when we woke up there was snow everywhere.

The red deer in the dry moat of the  ciudadela were being fed.

And now France

Yesterday we went on a short trip to Oloron Sainte-Marie. It takes a bit more than an hour on excellent Spanish roads, a brilliant 8.606km tunnel and really poor French roads through the picturesque steep Aspe valley. The autumn colours on the northern (French) side were really spectacular. It was a beautiful day.
A relaxing café au lait on a sunny terrace and a steep walk to the eglise de Sainte Croix, kindly left open so we could see its painted Romanesque inside.

Sainte-Croix is at the end of the street

Then a trip to the hypermarché to buy French things. (wine, cheese, canard) Lidl was interesting. There were some products which they don't sell in Spanish Lidl, such as blueberry jam, but generally the same stuff. We spent more time in the big Leclerc opposite. Something you really don't want to buy in France is petrol, which is about 13 cents more than in the province of Huesca; admittedly it's supposed to be one of the cheapest in Spain for petrol.

Homewards  towards the mountains now starting to look white past the bracken-covered hills and the lovely slopes of trees.