Teruel

Teruel, the capital of the Spanish province of Teruel; on the left bank of the river Guadalaviar, at its confluence with the Alfambra, and on the Murviedro-Calatayud railway. Pop. (rgoo) 10,797. The older part of Teruel is a walled city with narrow gloomy streets and crumbling medieval houses, but modern suburbs have been built outside the walls. Some of the numerous churches are worth seeing, with their paintings by the 17th-century artist Antonio Visquert. In the cloisters of San Pedro lie the remains of the celebrated "lovers of Teruel," Juan de Marcilla and Isabella de Segura, who lived in the 13th century and whose pathetic story has formed the subject of numerous dramas and poems by Perez de Montalban, Yaqui de Salas, Hartzenbusch and others. The cathedral dates from the 16th century. The great aqueduct of 140 arches was erected in 1555-60 by Pierre Bedel, a French architect. Teruel has several good hospitals and asylums for the aged and children, an institute, a training school for teachers, primary schools, a public library, an athenaeum, a meteorological station, and a large prison. The see was created in 1 577, and forms part of the archiepiscopal province of Saragossa.