Old village of Rodén | Mudejar Territory

Vista de las ruinas del pueblo viejo de Rodén sobre una colina árida, con la iglesia y su torre destacando entre los restos.

Ancient village of Rodén, Fuentes de Ebro

CURRENT PROTECTION CATEGORY: BIC

TYPE OF PROPERTY: Historic site

CATEGORY:

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE:

DATE OF CONSTRUCTION:

Original construction
It is a town of ancient origin, which could date back to a Roman foundation (Rudius). Centuries later, the Muslims would occupy it. After its conquest by the Aragonese monarchs, Zurita points out that in 1291 it belonged to Pedro Jordán de Peña, Lord of Arenós and later, in 1414, to the mitre of Zaragoza, remaining in its possession until the 18th century as an ecclesiastical lordship.

The delimited area corresponds to the old village of Rodén, a town with an interesting history, from Antiquity to the present day, in which there is a town planning with a strong Islamic influence with elements of interest from the architectural point of view ( Rodén Castle and San Martín Church ).

The old village of Rodén sits on a hill 300 metres above sea level, overlooking the valley of the river Ginel, which, a few metres to the northeast of the village, flows into the river Ebro. The houses and buildings used for secondary activities are arranged in a staggered pattern on the northern slope.

During the Spanish Civil War 1936 – 1939 it was the scene of several episodes of war of great historical significance. As a result, the town suffered great damage.

During the summer of 1937, the village of Rodén was destroyed, and the wooden construction elements (window frames, doors, beams, etc.) of the buildings were dismantled. The Republican troops required construction elements to reinforce trenches and the Belchite front line; a front that was in battle throughout that summer.

At the end of the war, Regiones Devastadas planned a new village on the slopes of the Cabezo, at the foot of the ruins of the old one, on the plain of the river Ginel and on the edge of the road and the future AVE railway line.

Nowadays, the old village of Rodén draws a landscape of ruins, which allows us to understand and get to know the context of the first years of the War and the course of events on the Belchite front and the future of the population who decided to return to a devastated village and start a new life in the new one.

Rodén Viejo is one of six villages in Spain that were not rebuilt at the end of the Civil War, but instead opted to build a new one next to the devastated one. These six villages (Valdeanchete, Montarron and Gajanejos, in the province of Guadalajara; Belchite and Rodén, in the province of Zaragoza; and Corbera de Ebro, in the province of Tarragona) bear witness to the devastation wrought by the war. Only Belchite, Rodén and Corbera de Ebro are preserved as monumental ruins.

Interventions

Restoration, 20th to 21st century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the village had 209 inhabitants who lived from agriculture. The existence of these inhabitants was cut short by the war that ravaged the Spanish landscape from 1936 to 1939.

The new village was built at the foot of the ruins, in the shadow of the old one, on the plain of the river Ginel. Since the 1970s it has been a neighbourhood of Fuentes de Ebro, from which it is 3 km. away.

Projects and interventions

Projects and interventions and their promoters define the history of monumental buildings as well as the perception of them.

The downloadable document presents the current status of the files under review, which will allow us to update our knowledge of each of the monumental buildings.

Declarations

Declaration, 20th Century

The Official Gazette of Aragon of 21 April 2017 published Decree 53/2017, of 11 April, of the Government of Aragon, declaring the old village of Rodén, in the municipality of Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza), a Site of Cultural Interest, in the category of Cultural Interest Site, as a Historic Site.