Description and history of the Castle of Aljafería located outside the walls of the city of Zaragoza

Description and history of the Castle of Aljafería located outside the walls of the city of Zaragoza is a work of the Aragonese scholar Mariano Nougués Secall.
Written around 1846, following a visit by the Queen of Aragon, Isabel I to the Aljafería Palace. According to the author’s prologue, the work was suggested to him by Isabel I, who was on the eve of marrying Francisco de Asís de Borbón, on the visit to the courtyard of Santa Isabel.
Following Isabel’s idea during her visit, Nougués worked on this Description and History of the Castle of Aljafería, which was presented in Zaragoza on March 12, 1846, and shortly after sent to the Secretariat of State in Madrid, so that it could be read by the queen, who gave approval.

The castle of the Aljafería, which can not be called citadel neither for its position, nor for its fortifications, is located in the western part of Zaragoza to the right of the Ebro, between this river and the concurrence of the royal roads of Madrid and Pamplona, whose line is so far that it can be considered tangent to the moat: almost at the level of this and at the foot of the embankment that forms it by the façade, the meadow extends to the Ebro that runs at a distance of eight hundred to nine hundred rods soon, and in a parallel direction. On the eastern side it is about two hundred and fifty rods from the door called del Portillo, leading it to the bastion or southern angle of said façade. The map that is accompanied by the number 1, gives an idea of its situation with respect to the city and its orchard, and also of its figure and proportions, although it does not manage to present the currents of the Ebro.
The current plant of the Aljafería is a quadrilateral of one hundred and forty rods long, and one hundred and thirty wide with chamfers or octagonal angles more irregular than it appears, on whose parallel bases the north and south facades rise; the first of one hundred and thirteen rods in length, and of one hundred and fourteen the second; On the height or perpendicular side rises the façade of the west in length of one hundred rods, and in all the remaining oblique supports the main façade to the east, forming with that of the south an angle of ninety-seven degrees.

Fragment of the work