Fortanete – Holiday apartment between a medieval castle and pine forests

Fortanete preserves the remains of a medieval castle and a surviving section of the defensive wall that descends to a former gate tower. The Iglesia parroquial de La Purificación is a Baroque parish church built in the second half of the 17th century and completed in 1693. The Renaissance town hall, the Casa Consistorial, was built in 1520. On the ground floor, it has a loggia with three round arches; on the upper floor, a wooden coffered ceiling rests on carved corbels.

Culture and history

The Torre de Mercadales is an example of the type of defensive towers belonging to the historic masadas characteristic of the Gúdar-Maestrazgo mountain ranges. The Ermita de San Cristóbal is considered Fortanete’s oldest hermitage and probably dates from the 16th century. Its porch provided shelter for shepherds and hikers.

The name Puente de piedra y huertos refers to a stone bridge with a flattened round arch and a gradient typical of medieval bridges. At its foot are small garden plots divided by dry-stone walls, each with a small water fountain. In the former brickworks building, the Centro de Interpretación de los Pinares provides information, through models, panels and multimedia elements, about forestry, fauna, flora, fungi and livestock farming in Fortanete’s pine forests.

Fortanete is still home to some of the last artisans skilled in boxwood carving. Boxwood was traditionally used there to make household items and accessories for livestock farming, such as clappers for cowbells.

Nature and landscape

Fortanete’s pine forests provide an ecological refuge for numerous animal species. These include garden dormice, squirrels, hares, rabbits, wild boar, ibex, roe deer, foxes, badgers, red crossbills and great spotted woodpeckers.

The Mirador de la Capellanía offers expansive views of the Sierra de La Cañada valley, the municipality of La Cañada de Benatanduz and the surrounding landforms. Las Dehesas shows how the landscape changed after depopulation, from former livestock pastures and cultivated plots into wasteland and grazing land, while the pine forest expanded at the expense of meadows and pastures.

When choosing a holiday apartment in Fortanete, you can compare travel dates, room category and cancellation conditions side by side on the respective offer pages. You can align the three details with your travel period, preferred category and need for flexible conditions.

Trails and festivals

The PR-TE 85 is catalogued and inventoried by the Gobierno de Aragón as a Sendero Turístico de Aragón. It runs from Villarroya de los Pinares via the rocky area of La Lastra, through a wild pine forest and along the Río Fortanete or the Rambla de Mal Burgo to Fortanete.

Fortanete’s patron saint festivities take place around 10 July in honour of Santa Bárbara, La Virgen del Rosario, Nuestra Sra. del Loreto and San Cristóbal. At the end of the Pentecost period, a pilgrimage takes place to the Ermita de la Virgen del Buen Suceso, attended by the entire village.

Other places: Montalbán, Obón, La Cerollera, Jarque De La Val, Ejulve, Fuentes Calientes, Moscardón and Rubiales.

Regional cuisine

Traditional cuisine in the area around Fortanete includes pork stew, garlic soup, rabbit in escabeche, lamb caldereta and Conserva.

For the higher-level travel overview: Teruel.