Three streets trace out the oval layout of the old walls that once ringed the town: Coso Alto, Coso Bajo and the Ronda Montearagón. The first two are the busiest shopping streets. Where they run into each other, a crossroads called Cuatro Esquinas, is the traditional meeting point for Huesca’s people and a good place to begin our tour of the town. Another road running into this point is the arcaded Calle de Galicia, with many restaurants, bars and open-air cafes tucked away beneath its porches. This street runs down to the Plaza de Navarra, the square containing the Tax Office and, standing opposite, the modernist style Casino. Behind this square is Huesca’s biggest park: the Parque Miguel Servet, with green and leafy gardens.

The cathedral has been built at the highest part of the town, where there was once an Iberian necropolis, a Roman temple a Visigoth church and a Muslim mosque, of which only the Puerta del Alminar remains. The cathedral has a nave and two aisles and a crossing, with 14 chapels. This cathedral boasts two particularly eyecatching sights, the altarpiece and the choir. The first was sculpted from alabaster, combining the Gothic and Renaissance styles. The choir stalls are made from walnut and are Renaissance in style. Next to the main front stands a tower with a square floor plan and then an octagonal upper part. The Plaza de la Catedral also contains the Town Hall called variously the Ayuntamiento or Palacio Municipal, an Aragonese Renaissance-style building. Backing onto it is the Colegio Imperial de Santiago. Very close to this school stands the Iglesia de San Pedro el Viejo, built initially in the Visigoth style and later Mozarabic style. Next to this church is the Plaza López de Allué, arcaded on all four sides; this square is one of the busiest points of this old part of the city. The main fronts of the buildings roundabout have undergone a complete facelift, giving the square a vivid colour scheme. On one side of the Calle Coso Bajo, on the Plaza de San Lorenzo, stands the church sharing the square’s name. Romanesque in origin, it still has some altarpieces and paintings, most notably the reliquary-bust of the city’s patron saint. Outside the old wall, next to the River Isuela, stands the Convento de San Miguel, a convent backing onto a church of the same name. There are splendid views from the top of Its tower. Opposite the convent is the only remaining stretch of medieval wall, running parallel to the river.

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