New ancients and not so ancient ruins - with a miasma thrown in for good measure.

October 27, 2026

We are heading into the hills and it is all going to get a bit bleak. Even Buena, through which we will travel, is really a few houses and farm buildings clinging to the road and the hillside.

The pistas fossiles de Buena are above us. https://patrimonioculturaldearagon.es/patrimonio/pistas-fosiles-de-buena/# The website proudly declares ‘Fossilized footprints have been discovered at this site, leading to the identification of a new ichnospecies called Megaplanolite Ibéricus’ Reviews are mixed. As with all things, it is easier to set up a display board than find the cash to maintain it.

Buena occupies a space in the pass that allows travelers to enter the plain. Jose gives us the details ‘It is a small tactical castle, likely built in the 12th century, consisting of a small, irregularly shaped rectangular enclosure, defended by a ravine on one side. Among its remains are a tower erected at the highest point of the enclosure and several masonry walls along the edge of the hill overlooking the town. The tower is rectangular and approximately 10 meters high, constructed of masonry with reinforcing ashlars at the corners. Today, it is covered by a sloping roof and has been converted into a dovecote. A visit to the beautiful and peaceful town of Bueña and its surrounding natural landscape is highly recommended.’

In 1363 it suffered a Castilian attack, in which the mayor, Martín Martínez de Gombalde, refused to surrender the castle to the invaders. His sons were killed in the attack.

Buena gets a GSH reference. BUEÑA: situated in a very deep cut formed by the mountain range called Palomar; it is exposed to north and south winds, and its climate is cold; in the winter months, it scarcely enjoys the sight of the sun, but a short distance from the town, one enjoys the most picturesque and delightful views; the most common illnesses suffered are pleurisy and rheumatic pains. It has 65 houses in addition to the town hall and jail; a primary school, endowed with 1,050 reales de vellón, attended by 28 students; and a parish church. (The Assumption of Our Lady), served by a priest and a sacristan, formerly there were two more beneficed clergy; the parish is a district parish, and is filled by the ordinary in a general competition; the church was formerly very small, dark and of poor construction, but it was rebuilt in the year 1703, according to the plan and under the direction of the architect Don Miguel Tena; it is of the composite order, quite spacious, with 7 gilded and tasteful altars, and a beautiful chapel dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified, to which the residents of the town and those of the surrounding area have a special devotion; this chapel was enriched in the year 1800 with some fine jewels by Don Juan Bautista Perez, a canon of Valencia; within the town is the cemetery, which although quite spacious, is detrimental to public health with the miasmas it exhales; It would be desirable, for the good of the residents themselves, that, in compliance with what has been repeatedly ordered on such an important matter, the cemetery be built in a more convenient and ventilated spot, and above all outside the town; near this is a hermitage dedicated to Saint Vincent Martyr, inside which there is a stone, on which it is believed that the Saint sat when he was taken from Zaragoza to Valencia by order of Dacian; also, 200 paces from the town, on the top of a hill, are the remains of an ancient castle; of which only the walls of a tower remain: the residents use for drinking and other domestic uses, the waters of a spring that is within the town, as well as those of several others that spring up in the district. The terrain is partly mountainous and partly flat, its soil a mix of sandstone and clay; one-third is cultivated with irrigation, another third is fallow land used for pasture, and the remainder is holm oak woodland that produces good and abundant firewood; although no river crosses it, a small stream and several ravines run through it, formed by the springs we have mentioned, one of which is particularly abundant .They are all local, except for the road that leads from Castile to Cantavieja and Morella through a narrow gorge, which was heavily used during the last civil war. Mail: received from Villafranca by postman on Wednesdays and Saturdays, on which days mail is dispatched. Products : rye, barley, wheat, oats, and some legumes and vetch; raising sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs; hunting partridges, rabbits, and hares. Industry : there are 2 tile kilns. Commerce : the export of some of its products and the import of missing goods. Population : 38 households, 152 inhabitants.