Loarre castle medieval fortress
— a fortress that grew out of the rock itself.
Not only on a wall.
Loarre castle medieval fortress, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A Romanesque fortress on a limestone outcrop in the foothills of the Pyrenees, about thirty kilometres north of Huesca. Sancho Ramírez built most of what stands today in the late eleventh century, on stone foundations the Romans had already chosen. The walls are the colour of the country around them. Ridley Scott used it for Kingdom of Heaven and changed almost nothing. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Loarre sits at about 1,071 metres on a rocky spur above the village of the same name, in the province of Huesca, Aragón. The fortress was rebuilt and expanded under Sancho Ramírez of Aragón in the late eleventh century, on the line of an earlier Roman watchpost. Its position commands the Hoya de Huesca, the broad plain that opens south toward the Ebro. The Pyrenees rise to the north. The site is reached by a single road that climbs from the N-240 through holm oak and almond.
The fortress is built of the same pale limestone it stands on, quarried in place, which is why the silhouette reads as continuous with the rock. The Romanesque chapel of San Pedro, consecrated around 1071, is the architectural heart: a barrel-vaulted nave, a small crypt, and capitals carved with chevrons and beasts. The curtain wall added in the twelfth century carries eight round towers. Most of what stands is original masonry, not reconstruction, which is rare for a castle of this age.
Loarre is open most of the year with a small admission fee and guided tours in Spanish; English audio guides are available at the ticket office. The drive up from Huesca takes about forty minutes. Mornings are quieter and the eastern light catches the towers well. The interior is mostly unroofed and uneven underfoot, so sturdy shoes matter. The village below has two small restaurants and a fountain in the square.
