La Puebla de Castro: Archaeology, Cultural Heritage and Hiking Trails

La Puebla de Castro offers a range of starting points for planning a trip: archaeological sites, religious art, historic village layouts and hiking trails. If you want to plan your stay around cultural themes or a route, these highlights can easily be distinguished from one another. The following details give you an overview of what makes the town and its surroundings distinctive.

Archaeological Traces and Different Periods

The El Remosillo archaeological site lies at the Congosto de Olvena. It features around forty schematic rock art figures, including quadrupeds, carts drawn by quadrupeds and anthropomorphic figures. The site therefore brings together several distinct motifs: animals, carts and human-like figures. For a culturally focused stay, this offers a different point of interest from the Roman site of Labitolosa.

Labitolosa is located on Cerro Calvario, within the municipality of La Puebla de Castro. The site was active from the 1st century BC until the end of the 2nd century AD. Together with El Remosillo, it offers insight into different archaeological themes: schematic rock art at one site, and a site with activity spanning several centuries at the other. If you include both places in your plans, the types of evidence and their respective dates are different.

Church Art, Icehouse and Historic Town Centre

The Church of San Román de Castro contains a Mudejar choir. Its beams bear a variety of polychrome, botanical and geometric motifs. The choir can therefore be appreciated particularly through its colours and ornamentation: botanical forms sit alongside geometric patterns in its design. Another example of church art is the Gothic altarpiece in the Church of Santa Bárbara. It comes from the Romanesque hermitage of San Román de Castro. The two details thus distinguish between a choir with decorated beams and an altarpiece with a named provenance.

The surviving icehouse is also part of the town’s cultural heritage. It belonged to a facility where ice was produced, transported and traded to preserve products and food. This points not only to storage, but to a chain of use involving production and distribution. In the historic centre, narrow streets, gateway-like entrances, covered passageways and arcades shape the townscape. The façades form a defensive wall; together, these features preserve the town’s original appearance.

Hiking Trails and Pilgrim Route

The PR-HU 73 follows old paths and farm tracks. Along the way, there are views of the Pyrenees and the Olvena gorge. These details describe the character of the route and the landscape it traverses. The PR-HU 74 can be identified by different waypoints: it starts in Artasona on the banks of the Cinca, passes through La Puebla de Castro and by the Roman site of Labitolosa, and ends at the Barasona Reservoir. While the type of path and the views are the main features of the PR-HU 73, the starting point, waypoints and destination help you understand the course of the PR-HU 74. The route details for the PR-HU 74 may change, so check the latest route information before planning.

A branch of the Way of St James passes through La Puebla de Castro or its nearby surroundings. It connects France via the Val d’Aran and joins the Catalan Way of St James at Berbegal. The branch of the Way of St James passes through La Puebla de Castro or its nearby surroundings.

Dates to Help Plan Your Trip

The Feria de San Román takes place on the second Saturday in November. The Romería de Castro is scheduled for the Monday of the second week of Pentecost. These are two different recurring dates that may be relevant when travelling at different times of the year. As the exact annual programme may change, check the current festival dates before planning your stay. This will help you decide whether to plan your trip around one of these events or focus on archaeological, artistic and landscape attractions.

Discover more destinations: Llert, Lastanosa, Hoz De Jaca, Nueno, Castejón Del Puente, Ibieca, Roda De Isábena, Baldellou.

For the main travel overview: Huesca.