The Pilgrim's Legend

An unknown pilgrim was walking through Canfranc. Nobody helped him. Nobody gave food, nobody gave a bed to sleep in.

The pilgrim was very sad and angry so when he was passing over the bridge on the River Aragon after the village, he raised his hand and said:

"Canfranc, you will be burnt three times and finally you will finish under the water!".

Maybe this in only a legend but if you want to know this village, go soon, Canfranc has been burnt twice already...

About Mary Pita

Mary Pita was a brave woman. When Spain was fighting with England, our heroine fought againt English people.
La Coruña , city situated in the north of Spain was a point to be conquered to England since is near the English Coast.
Mary Pita tried to organicer differente defensive points in an intelligent way. Although in those it was rare that a woman had any power, she was fighting to the end.
She died in the square that today has her name "Plaza de María Pita", where in front of her statue is the council.
This statue was a very original because in her hands she carries a lance and near her a flaming tourch that is always lit. It´s very nice!!!!
If you go to La Coruña you must visit this famous statue!

Pirene's Legend

Pirene was a pretty nymph, daughter of an iberian leader called Bebrix. When Herakles, in one of his travels (journeys), was passing there, Bebrix invited him to drink, and finally, Herakles seduced Pirene, who fell in love with him.

The following day Herakles left, and Pirene was abandoned. She was crying and crying, and she couldn't stand her pain.

Then she decided to be burnt and burned all the forest.

Herakles was looking at the sky, and he saw the black smoke. Then he ran back but he was late: Pirene was dying.

Herakles was sorry. He buried Pirene with the biggest rocks, making a great mountain chain.

When he finish, he placed snow there, and called these mountains "Pirineos", like the pretty nymph who was dead for his love.

Count Aznar

When the Count Aznar was fighting against the muslims in Jaca, the battle was very hard and in a moment he saw a big group of people coming to help him and his soldiers.
The muslims seeing his inferiority in numbers escaped and lost the battle.
Every First Friday of May we celebrate a festival in Jaca to commemorate the victory of the Count Aznar against the moors.

ALFONSO X, EL SABIO. LEYENDA CRISTO DE LA LUZ

ALFONSO X EL SABIO

He was a very important person, he was king of Castilla and León. He was son of the king Fernando III. He stimulated the reconquest of Jerez, Lebrija, Cádiz...
He stood out in the cultural order. He created cultural centers in Toledo, Sevilla and Murcia.

LEYENDA DEL CRISTO DE LA LUZ

A lengend tells, that when the king entered Toledo, his horse knelt down opposite to the mosque refusing to advance. They observed a light between the walls. The king gave the order to dig and they found a crucifix.

Jaca City Hall

City Hall of Jaca was built in 1544, the style is Aragonese Plateresque but you can appreciate other styles like Renaissance.But we prefer talking about the inside because it's funnier.
They are a lot of politicians talking about a lot of things but they really don't do anything.
We can say something good and it's that they are going to donate 60.000€ for the victims of Haiti.
The most special moment in the City Hall is when the anthem of the town is sung by the people in the fiesta of the First Friday of May.

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SERÓS

It´s a village of the Pyrenees, placed 20 km of Jaca, it has 150 habitants.
Historically the most important thing that happened there was the foundation of the Monastery of Saint Mary for the king Ramiro I, and his daughters lived there: infanta Teresa, Urraca and Sancha.
Infanta Sancha was a very important person for this village. She made a testament and they inherited numerous goods.
This village has two important churches : St Caprasio and Saint Mary, the two of Romanesque style.
The constructions of the houses are in the habit of being with few windows in order that the heat does not escape, that to the being a village or mountain is very important detail this one. Also chimneys have witch scarers, that are protection symbols in order that there was not entering any evil to the house.
About the house they had a small garden that vegetables were growing in for consumption, to the suburbs of the village, there were the gardens that are big extensions of area where they were growing flax and linen and then in the looms they were making and sheets. There are numerous fruit trees, like apple, pear trees...In the surroundings of the village the forest was where the people hunted the rabbits, wild boars,...also in autumn they were looking for mushrooms.

If you go to France you can find...

Natural attractions in France, the mountains like the Alps and the Pyrenees, you can find also beautiful beaches especially in Cote d'Azur and Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea. In the other side we have the Atlantic Ocean with cities like Biarritz, Capbreton and La Rochelle.
We can find good beaches and seasides in Brittanny and Normandy.
Paris, the capital of France, is one of the most famous touristic cities in the world. If you go to Paris you can visit the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Museé d'Orsay and the Sacre Coeur in the Montmartre neighbourhood. You can take the Baton Mouche and sail on the Seine River.
If you like castles you can visit a lot of them in the Loire region where you can find beautiful ones like Chenonceaux and Chambord.
Gastronomic tourism is very important in France. Wines, cheeses, taboulet, and of course the "nouvelle cuisine".

The team

Think of a number

Today the language focus was on using numbers in English. We did a number puzzle. Here's another one.

1) Write down the number of the month you were born


2) Multiply it by 4

3) Add 13

4) Multiply the result by 25

5) Subtract 200

6) Add the day of the month on which you were born

7) Multiply by 2

8) Subtract 40

9) Multiply the result by 50

10) Add the last two digits of the year of your birth

11) Finally, subtract 10,500

IF THE RESULT ISN'T YOUR BIRTHDAY, TRY AGAIN!

Doña Sancha

Vía Tolosana in English



Doña Sancha was a very important woman. She had great power although it was difficult for a woman to have power in the Middle Ages.

She had two sisters called Teresa and Urraca. She also had two brothers called Ramiro I and García. (This is wrong, Ramiro was her father)

She married Count Ermengol III of Urgell and they didn´t have any children. When her husband died she decided that she would never marry again, so she went into the monastery of Santa María.

She was a powerful woman in Jacetania.

By Elena and Ruth