HERITAGE
The Peña Chiquitita rock formation is located in Tosos, welcoming everyone who visits Tosos and, together with the Las Torcas reservoir, the most representative emblems of the town.
The natural frame of the municipality is privileged, together with a historically rich heritage, which offers visitors endless possibilities.
The reservoir surroundings possess remarkable historical relics that take visitors back to the Middle Age: From Tosos, on the way to the reservoir is the medieval tower “La Casaza,” located at a fantastic place with an overview of the last straits of the river. Near to the end of the reservoir there are remains of an ancient population Alcañiz de la Huerva, where with ruins from the “El Alcañicejo” castle, founded by Alfonso I el Batallador in 1124. At the foot of the fortress are remains of teh unusual and intriguing Cistercian monastery called “El Santo ” built during the 13th century.
CULTURE AND TRADITIONS
SORCERY IN TOSOS
In mid-1812, the small town from Aragón, Tosos, was victim of a demon possession, considered by local authorities as “the most extraordinary case ever seen.” During the Corpus Christi procession, eight women behaved as if they were possessed “doing the same contortions and violent movements like those usually made by women who are really bewitched.”
After a few days, thirty two people were possessed. The majority of the population assumed the supernatural explanation of the malefic and accused Joaquina Martinez as responsible, witch and sorcerer.
These facts matched with a power vacuum in Spain during the Independence war against Napoleon’s Army (1812- 1813). The years of “revolution” that for a country marked the beginning of the end of the former regime, meant a state of social unrest in many populated areas. The furious behavior of the possessed people from Tosos led them to stand up against the authorities to defend their attitude and can be seen today as an emblem of a situation of widespread disorder.
About these facts, a book has been published:
“The Possessed of Tosos (1812-1814). Witchcraft and Popular Justice during the Spanish Revolution”.
The publication is edited by el Instituto Aragonés de Atropología, number 5 of its monographs with the cooperation of the Regulatory Council of the DO and participation of Caja Rural del Campo Cariñena (now Caja Rural de Aragón).
The author, Mary Tausiet, from Madrid with ancestry from Aragón, is Doctor in History from the University of Zaragoza and also the author of another book in the same genre titled “Ponzoña en los Ojos – Brujería y Superstición en Aragón en el siglo XVI.”
RESTAURANT
BRASERÍA JJM LAS TORCAS
+34 653 982 953
COUNTRY HOUSE
CIERZO Y SABINA
+34 Avda. Cariñena, 27