Sahún (Huesca) (0)

Did you know that... Sahún

It is the capital of the municipality of the same name which is also part of the nuclei of Eriste and Eresué. Sahún is located between the Cambra and Llisat or Surri basins, in the centre of the Benasque Valley, on the left bank of the river Esera and entering part of its municipal district in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park and the Natural Monument of the Pyrenean Glaciers. Historically, the valleys of Ribagorzano, including the valley of Benasque, depended on the Counts of Tolosa until 872 when it became an independent county, the county of Ribagorza, and in the 11th century Sancho el Mayor integrated it into the kingdom of Aragon.

To discover What to see in Sahún?

In an environment where nature is shown in all its splendour and majesty, the urban centre of Sahún, a typical high mountain village, preserves the beautiful traditional architecture of the area, with stone houses and large doorways among which the parish church of San Juan Bautista stands out, in Romanesque style from the 12th century although with Renaissance reforms from the 16th and 17th centuries. The visitor's attention is drawn to the fact that several houses have inscriptions on the lintels of the doors or windows with the year of construction, the 18th century. On the façade of the old House Abadia, a ceramic mural shows the village of Sahún and the surrounding mountains. Walking around the village, in the center of the town you will find the watering hole and washing place. At the entrance to Sahún you can see the remains of the old Romanesque-Lombard hermitage dedicated to San Aventín which dates from the 12th century. Over the river Esera, covered by undergrowth, the old bridge of Sahún possibly built between the 17th and 18th centuries still stands. In order to enjoy the spectacle of the village, high mountain routes as well as peaceful walks and routes such as the one that goes to the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Guayente, which was originally a chapel and was built between the 12th and 16th centuries, close to the sanctuary is the fountain-oratory of Santolai; or the mountain path of Sahún that brings pilgrims and visitors closer to the chapel of San Pedro Mártir, built in the year 1731. Sahún is a quiet and peaceful village that combines modern comfort with a privileged environment for active tourism and nature.

Festivities

Sahún celebrates festivities in honor of San Juan on June 24, and on September 8 the Virgin of Guayente is celebrated. The locals, and anyone who wishes, go up to the hermitage of San Pedro Mártir in a pilgrimage along the Sahún mountain road on May 1.

Traditions

In the year 2015, Unesco declared the Pyrenean faults as an Immaterial Good of Humanity and the ancestral "faults" of Sahun are part of this. The falles are torches that are lit on the night of San Juan to celebrate the summer solstice and here are made of hazelnut sticks with birch skin and are lit from a bonfire lit at the top of the mountain and then unmarried boys run and zigzag down the slope to the town square, where they light with them the various fires that they have prepared, and in the light of the fire they turn and turn over their heads until they are consumed and extinguished. Then the party continues with music and food. In Sahun, the sticks thus burned are kept and nailed in the gardens to protect the crops

Curiosities

The collaboration between the town council of Sahún and the Provincial Council of Huesca, together with the hard work done by the students of the Sahún School, has managed to make a beautiful tourist route called "Customs, traditions and trades" that runs through the three villages of the municipality, Eresué, Eriste and Sahún.

The Legend

In Sahún we hear a legend or traditional tale that talks about how there was a man in the village who lived happily and that although his prosperity was evident, his house, his fields and animals were the best in the area, he was never seen working. One day his young neighbour, eager to know the secret that the man was keeping, watched him through the window of the house and saw with surprise how the man took out a tube from inside his jacket and, uncovering it, a cloud of little bugs came out of it and his guardian ordered them to do all the work and the last order was "quickly return to the joint". When the boy saw this, he took advantage of a morning in which the man was dozing at the door of his house to get the container that contained the little animals, and going with him to his fields, he opened it and ordered the "diaplleróns", as these magical beings are called in these places, to clean it of herbs. When they finished, they came back ready to shout "what a woman, what a woman..." and began to surround him, because the boy did not know what to send them. He was on the verge of dying, suffocated by them, when the good man who was guarding them appeared and taking the reed, ordered them to enter it. Once the scare was over, he explained to his young and curious neighbor how he should act with them and at the same time, since he already knew their secret, he told him that at his death he would take care of the joint.