Bones of medieval kings saved from Spanish wildfire / Photo: © UME/AFP
Bones of medieval kings saved from Spanish wildfire
Firefighters raced to save a mythical 1,000-year-old monastery in northeastern Spain on Friday as a growing wildfire prompted the hasty removal of the bones of the medieval monarchs buried there.
The blaze broke out earlier this week and on Thursday bore down on two monasteries of San Juan de la Pena, a symbol of the Aragon region, perched in mountainous, rugged terrain.
The oldest monastery, linked by legend to the Holy Grail, has origins in the 10th century and holds the remains of the first kings of the medieval kingdom of Aragon.
The army's emergencies unit (UME) released footage of its officers rushing to remove the monastery's priceless treasures on Thursday, including transparent boxes full of skulls and bones, artwork and a chalice, as flames licked the surrounding hills.
"At the last minute, we were able to rescue assets with an extraordinary historical value for this region and for all of Spain," UME chief Javier Marcos told reporters.
"I'm not confident about how the fire will develop, for that reason we still have personnel defending both monasteries," he said.
The heritage site lies close to one of the world-famous Saint James pilgrimage routes to the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela and attracts around 100,000 visitors a year.
- 'Incalculable symbolic value' -
Felix Longas, a member of a religious brotherhood that cares for the monastery, told public broadcaster RTVE that the site "has an incalculable symbolic value".
"It's our roots, our history lies there," he explained, saying a change in wind helped keep the flames at bay.
Regional authorities said more than 10,000 hectares (24,000 acres) had been "affected" and around 850 people evacuated from various small settlements and villages.
Aragon's leader Jorge Azcon did not rule out more evacuations and said three firefighting aircraft could arrive from France, to reinforce the roughly 500 officers already tackling the blaze.
A series of heatwaves across Europe have created ideal conditions for wildfires, with Spain suffering its biggest such disaster in recent history in late July, just dozens of kilometres from Madrid.
The Aragon region is under the second-highest orange warning for heat on Friday, with maximum temperatures of 37C in the area of the fire.
Wildfires have devoured more than 283,000 hectares of land in Spain this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, after a record 2025 saw almost 400,000 hectares go up in smoke.
W.Schneider--BP
