5 Best Sights in Huesca, The Pyrenees

This massively walled 11th-century structure surrounded by rocky outcroppings is perhaps the best-preserved Romanesque castle in Europe. Inside the walls are a church, tower, dungeon, and even a medieval toilet. The strategic vantage point commands views of the almond and olive groves in the Ebro basin.

An intricately carved gallery tops the eroded facade of Huesca's 13th-century Gothic cathedral. Damián Forment, a protégé of the 15th-century Italian master sculptor Donatello, created the alabaster altarpiece, which dates to 1533 and has scenes from the Crucifixion.

The village of Riglos, 43½ km (27 miles) northwest of Huesca, is at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula's most spectacular rock-climbing site. Roped teams dangle hundreds of feet overhead, some bivouacking overnight on the rock face; down below, climbing culture is celebrated and toasted at Bar el Puro.

This museum occupies parts of the former royal palace of the kings of Aragón and holds paintings by Aragonese primitives, including La Virgen del Rosario by Miguel Jiménez, and several works by the 16th-century Maestro de Sigena. The eight chambers, set around an octagonal patio, include the Sala de la Campana (Hall of the Bell), where beheadings of errant nobles took place.

This Benedictine abbey has an 11th-century cloister. Ramiro II and his father, Alfonso I, the only Aragonese kings not entombed at San Juan de la Peña, rest in a side chapel.