A renewed town

We are going to visit a pueblo.  Why? Because I need some buildings, I’m getting nervous between all the trees and the solar. To that end we are dodging off the main road and following the back lane and so to the newly tarted up entrance to Chiprana. 








The town is clearly placed to take advantage of the loop in the Ebro. It is a decent defensible place, with a mere 350mm of rain  a year.  A Neolithic settlement dates back to 3100BC.  Apparently the Templars and Hospitallers hung out here and in 1845 the much quoted Pascual Madoz wrote




It has 180 houses, including the municipal house and prison, a very deteriorated castle or palace... parish church (San Juan Bautista)... 2 hermitages, the first called Nuestra Señora de la Consolación, of solid construction, its church has several tastefully gilded altars, and according to tradition it belonged to the Templars; the second called San Marcos.





It also had a flour mill, tile factory, three weavers a shoemaker and two espadrille makers.



The current population is much reduced from the 1857 1768.  Numbers wandered down to 1350 in 1897, rose again and then sank to 400 in 2001.  The  revitalisation of the town is partly down to migrants.  In 2022 a little over a third of the populace were foreign born. 




Chiprana has a flag. I am rather taken with it.




I got a bit lost wandering round the place. The streets are narrow.  We go near to the Rte. Mirador - a bar and grill.  90 people average out at 4 stars.  Nine months ago Gema said ‘Very bad service. They had nothing for dinner and not even an appetizer.’ while Eloy said ‘family attention and food like at home’   Basically you either love it or you have turned up when they aren’t doing food.




Having wandered back we will pass the Campo Municipal La Balsa de Chiprana.  This football pitch gets 4.2 stars.  These tend to be reviews from a long time ago.  The most recent is from Oscar who says ‘Great field and great fans.’





And so we head out of town and heading east again.



































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