I do not know what led me to that Sunday morning stroll along the banks of the Canal Imperial de Aragón. Despite having lived in Saragossa and visit the city frequently, I had never done before. Perhaps it was the memory of my father, who moved away from the mountain by imperatives of age as he walks looking at a surrogate to bear the unbearable distance of the peaks. Maybe it was just a bad conscience for having walked hundreds of hours in strange cities staying both walk in it's in my heart. Surely both things at once. The truth is that I hit with a fascinating history which, I admit, had barely paid attention: of a man who dreamed of realizing, 250 years after, commitment of an emperor, that in whose dominions the sun never set: a canal from the Atlantic to the Bay of Biscay favored watering tens of thousands of hectares of wasteland.
The statue of the man visionary, Ramón Pignatelli, dominates 1904 (when she was transferred from the central square of Aragon) the park of the same name at the end of Sagasta ride, the path antigo Torrero that connected the center of Zaragoza with water tanks Imperial Canal, located in the highest part of the city.
I do not know what led me to that Sunday morning stroll along the banks of the Canal Imperial de Aragón. I've never done before. Perhaps it was the memory of my father
One step from the Church of St. Anthony of Padua and Italian military cemetery, the Bank of America (the original there is nothing, it was destroyed during the War of Independence to hinder the advance of French troops to Zaragoza) marks the first meeting with the channel, one of the most ambitious water projects undertaken in Europe XVIII. No wonder that it took Pignatelli mad and that his project would generate jokes and disbeliefs.
Today, figures still provoke admiration: channel 110 km long parallel to the right bank of the river Ebro, from whom its waters, that runs between the town of Navarre Fontellas and Aragonese Fuentes de Ebro and she even used for river transport of passengers between Tudela and Zaragoza (relegated later by the railway Alsasua-Zaragoza). But, especially, flow rate 30 cubic meters of water per second than watered living (and continues) around 27.000 hectares of crops and twenty municipalities.
Pignatelli dreamed of realizing, 250 years after, commitment of an emperor, that in whose dominions the sun never set
I've walked in several days many of the 15 kilometers of riverbanks (in both directions) that mark the passage of the Imperial Canal by the municipality of Zaragoza (a journey that can also be done by bike). First, by its left bank, urbanized and neat, and, after, by Valdegurriana path, wild and untamed, with that scent suburbs where cities surrender, by exhaustion, the field. Occasionally you come across a halt, with an old beacon, with flowers that cry that no soulless the boot, glimpses of the past that went with the flow.
And is that the landscape has long disappeared XIX. The banks are no longer dotted with windmills, mills, laundries, small shipyards and warehouses. By the waters and recreational boats do not sail or passengers. But the channel still irrigating thousands of hectares of crops and supplying water to dozens of municipalities. And, as then, remains a playground for many zaragozanos. Addition, is superbly escorted in this section: aside the big park (renamed Jose Antonio Labordeta) and, other, the mountains of Venice Pinares. The detour is almost forced to look at the city from above. The statue of Alfonso I the Battler shows the way. On the other side, walk the trails of the pine offers an interesting perspective of the canal.
Occasionally you come across a halt, with an old beacon, glimpses of the past that went with the flow
The architect of this impressive work of hydraulic engineering did not forget his detractors when, in 1790, Imperial Canal of Aragon was a reality. Just beyond the junction with the current via Iberian is named as a source of unbelievers. Only needed for a Latin inscription claimed against such mockery. "For conviction of unbelievers and comfort of travelers", commanded to write. Water flowed and the arid land around Zaragoza, laying the foundation of an ambitious land reform. The crazy Pignatelli had had his way.
Still stand four ancient beacons, from where irrigation water distributed. To reach San Antonio de Padua (just in the opposite direction to that of the source of the Unbelievers) have to walk the path of Valdegurriana, leave behind the halt of La Paz and save the precipice of death, Pignatelli forcing build a spectacular aqueduct. Later Locks are Valdegurriana (the channel has to save throughout the course of a slope 125 meters), designed to allow navigation on this stretch.
In a source Pignatelli left a message to his detractors: "For the conviction of the unbelievers and the comfort of travelers"
The brownish water should not be misleading. In addition to a large colony of ducks, shelters channel 2.500 copies of the world's most expensive clam, the Margaritifera auricularia (Pearl River), the oldest freshwater mussels and a protected species whose capture (nacre of the shells is a precious commodity) is strictly prohibited. The fine can reach 16.000 EUR.
Walk down the path toward Valdegurriana the locks of the same name is going slowly giving back to the city between undeveloped wasteland medium and cracked land better than anyone explaining the miracle Pignatelli channel and the legion of skeptics who .
The waters are home to the imperial canal 2.500 considered exemplary of the world's most expensive clam
The faint grasslands are dotted about the current, occasionally, the odd fisherman sitting on the shore. On a wall of a sports center, one step away from the pine forests of Valdegurriana, minstrels have graffiti painted clown face Have, died a few days ago. It's a morning bicycle and dogs want nothing of their owners, perhaps sensing that the city is running out and that, finally, are in their territory. The bed of the canal is lost in the distance and calls to keep walking but, Now, it's time to turn around.
