(also Saragossa), a city in northeastern Spain, capital of Aragon Region and of Zaragoza Province. Population, 488,500(1971).
Zaragoza is situated on the Ebro River and is surrounded by an irrigated agricultural region called the Aragonese Huerta. A major transportation hub, the city has machine-building (agricultural machinery, automobiles, airplanes) and food-processing (sugar, flour, canned fruit, wine, vegetable oil, milk) industries. Other industries include woodworking and the production of chemicals, textiles, cement, cork, paper, and leather goods. A pipeline, which also crosses the Pyrenees, runs from Zaragoza to Rota, near the city of Cádiz. The university in Zaragoza was founded in 1474. The city has a provincial museum of fine art, which includes prehistoric, ancient Roman, and Spanish collections. National trade fairs are held here every October.
Zaragoza was founded by the Romans in 27 B.C. on the site of the Iberian settlement Salduba. It was named Caesaraugusta and later called Sarakosta by the Arabs. The city was under Arabic rule from A.D. 714 to 1118 and was the capital of the emirate of Zaragoza in the 11th and early 12th centuries. Conquered by Alfonso I, Zaragoza became the capital of Aragon. In 1119 it became autonomous and enjoyed certain other privileges. In the 14th century, Zaragoza became one of the most economically developed cities of Aragon and was particularly known for textile production. A commodity exchange was functioning in the mid-16th century, much earlier than in other Spanish cities. There was also book printing. The general decline of Spain’s economy in the 17th and 18th centuries affected Zaragoza as well. During the Spanish Revolution of 1808–14 the city was twice besieged by French invaders (1808 and 1808–09). The fame won by the city through its heroic resistance found reflection in art and literature (Goya’s etching What Courage! and Pérez Galdós novel Saragossa).
The regular plan of the original ancient Roman colony has been preserved to some extent in the center of Zaragoza. The city’s medieval architecture has many Moorish features, including patterned brickwork, decorative domes, and facings of multicolored tiles. Architectural monuments include La Seo Cathedral (1119–1550), with a facade from the late 17th century in the Herreran style and a tower from 1685. There are 16th-century churches in the Mudejar style (for example, La Magdalena), a Gothic and plateresque exchange building (1551), and various plateresque palaces of the 16th century.