Villarroya de los Pinares

This article is about the locality and municipality of Villarroya de los Pinares in the Maestrazgo region of the province of Teruel, in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. For other uses, see Villarroya de los Pinares (disambiguation).

Villarroya de los Pinares, Spain Villarroya de los Pinars
municipality
Nickname:  Villarroya
Villarroya de los Pinares, Spain
Coordinates: 40°32′N0°40′W / 40.533°N 0.667°W / 40.533; -0.667
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Aragon
Province	Teruel
Region	Maestrazgo
Area
• Total	66.41 km2 (25.64 sq mi)
Elevation	1,337 m (4,386 ft)
Population  (2024-01-01) [1]
• Total	163
• Density	2.45/km2 (6.36/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
Postal code	44144
Website	http://www.villarroyadelospinares.es

Villarroya de los Pinares (Aragonese Villarroya de los Pinars) is a municipality located in the Maestrazgo ^[2] region, province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 190 inhabitants.

It is in the northern part of the Gúdar mountain range next to the Guadalope River at an altitude of 1,337 meters and at a distance of 51 km from the provincial capital, Teruel on the A-226 road.

Local Policy

Last mayors of Villarroya de los Pinares

Period	Mayor	Party
1979–1983	Juan Ramón López Ariño [3] [4]	UCD |
1983–1987
1987–1991
1991–1995
1995–1999
1999–2003
2003–2007
2007–2011
2011–2015	Arturo Martín Calvo [5]	PAR |

Demography

Like many other municipalities in the province of Teruel and the province as a whole, Villarroya de los Pinares has a low population density (close to 3 inhabitants / km²). For decades, the municipality has experienced a gradual depopulation of its territory, in parallel to the aging of its inhabitants, as has happened in so many other places of mainly agricultural and livestock vocation, located in the plateaus and mountain ranges of inland Spain.

Demographic Evolution ^{[6] [7] [8]}

Year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1981
Population	1,095	942	875	772	641	628	574	400		249
Year	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
Population	218					214		203	200	201
Year	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Population	192	196	193	190	188	194	194	187	190	177
Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Population	172	163	164	160	163	160	155	160	172	161
Year	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030
Population	187

Economy

Traditionally, its source of livelihood is agriculture and livestock. More recently, rural tourism has begun to become one more reason to visit the municipality. Nearby are the ski slopes of the Sierra de Gúdar. The abundant hunting and fishing are additional attractions.

Buildings

Hermitage of San Benón, Villarroya de los Pinares (Teruel).

Tower in Villarroya de los Pinares.

Alegre y Pellicer Ancestral Home.

The municipality of Villarroya de los Pinares was declared a Historic-artistic Site in 1982. Many historic buildings in the urban area are crowned with ancient shields and inscriptions.

The municipality's Gothic church, built-in 1459 and dedicated to the Virgen de la Asunción, has a remarkable polygonal apse and a porticoed gallery. It has undergone several repairs since then. Cardinal Francisco Peña, who always harbored the dream of transforming it into a cathedral, lies buried in it.

The hermitage built in honor of the patron saint of the place, San Benón, stands in the vicinity of the municipality. Also, in the vicinity of this, is the castle in ruins that belonged to James I of Aragón, King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier.

Festivals

Two patron saint festivals are celebrated in the village, one on 16 June in honor of San Benón, and the other on 25 July in honor of St. James the Apostle.

Illustrious personages

• Cardinal Francisco Peña, ^[9] the illustrious son of the municipality, inhabited a house of architectural interest, located in the municipality of Villarroya de los Pinares, which was built at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the XVII and where they find several noble buildings.
• Cmdte. Don Narciso Alegre, ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} who was a Carlist contemporaneous with Ramón Cabrera, 1st Duke of Maestrazgo, ^[14] was another Villarroya de los Pinares resident.
• Narciso Alegre y Pellicer, ^[15] son of Narciso Alegre and Juana Pellicer, who was exiled to the Philippines with his younger brother, Francisco, after the third Carlist War.
• The luthier Telesforo Julve, based in Valencia.

Images

• 
  Calle de Villarroya de los Pinares
• 
  Vista de Villarroya de los Pinares
• 
  Iglesia de Villarroya de los Pinares
• 
  Ermita de San Benón
• 
  Torreón (Villarroya de los Pinares, Teruel, Aragón)

• 
  Alegre y Pellicer ancestral home
• 
  Historical emblem of the Alegre family of Villarroya de los Pinares
• 
  Narciso Alegre y Pellicer, Carlist exile to the Philippines

See also

• Maestrazgo, Aragon
• List of municipalities in Teruel

References

1. National Statistics Institute (13 December 2024). "Municipal Register of Spain of 2024".
2. "Maestrazgo".
3. Ministerio de Hacienda y Administraciones Públicas (Gobierno de España). "Treinta aniversario de las primeras elecciones municipales de la democracia".
4. "Secretaría de Estado de Administraciones Públicas". Archived from the original on 6 March 2014.
5. Alcaldes de Aragón de las elecciones de 2011
6. "Instituto Nacional de Estadistica: Official Population Figures referring to revision of Municipal Register 1 January".
7. VILLARROYA DE LOS PINARES, Municipality in Teruel Province | CityPopulation.de
8. Current Time in Villarroya de los Pinares, Aragon, Spain | GeneralBlue
9. Stefan Bauer (2020). The Invention of Papal History: Onofrio Panvinio between Renaissance and Catholic Reform. Oxford.
10. "Gran Encyclopedia Aragonesa – Carlistas, Guerras".
11. "Gobierno de Aragon – Documents and Archives of Aragon (DARA)".
12. Lafuente, Modesto (1890). Historia general de España desde los tiempos primitivos hasta la muerte de Fernando VII (in Spanish). Montaner y Simón.
13. Mayor, Spain Ejército Cuerpo de Estado (1888). Narración militar de la guerra carlista de 1869 á 1876 (in Spanish). Impr. del Departmentósito de la Guerra.
14. Conxa, Rodríguez Vives (22 February 2019). Los exilios de Ramón Cabrera (in Spanish). Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. ISBN   978-84-17633-40-0.
15. "DARA :: Detalle de Registro". aplicaciones.aragon.es.