Goya fountain-Fuente de Goy, Zaragoza, Bezoekersgids & wat te doen in de buurt

The Goya fountain (Fuente de Goya) is a stop on the Plaza del Pilar in the old town of Zaragoza, set beside the Renaissance Lonja and tied to the memory of Francisco de Goya, the painter born in Aragon. A cenotaph here recalls his burial in Bordeaux, so the spot is a good place to connect the city with its most famous artist.

The story behind it

Goya died in exile in Bordeaux in April 1828, and he was buried there. The funerary monument that first stood over his grave in the Bordeaux cemetery was later given by that French city to mark the centenary of his death. An inscription in French records that the illustrious Spanish painter Francisco Goya y Lucientes was buried there on 17 April 1828.

Beside it stands the Lonja, a Renaissance building from the 16th century that was made for business and trade. Its walls carry many carved faces, so the stop pairs a memorial to an artist with one of the city's finest civic buildings.

What to look for

• Read the French inscription on the cenotaph, which names Goya and gives the date of his burial in Bordeaux.
• Look up at the Lonja facade and the carved faces and masks that decorate its walls.
• Notice the scale of the Plaza del Pilar around you, with the great basilica of Our Lady of the Pilar close by.
• Compare the sober memorial with the Renaissance stonework next to it, two very different ways of remembering the past.

Tips for your visit

• You can see the monument from the open square, so it costs nothing to stop here. Ten to fifteen minutes is enough, longer if you linger at the Lonja.
• Go early in the morning or around sunset, when the square is quieter and the light on the stone is softer.
• The basilica and the Ebro riverfront are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a wider stroll of the old town.
• If you want to go inside the Lonja, check current opening hours and whether an exhibition is on.

See it on a quest

You can reach this spot on foot as one stop of Zaragoza and the Napoleonic wars, a self-guided route through the old town. The app tells you about each place as you arrive and sets a puzzle in what is in front of you, so you look at the square more closely. Start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join. One ticket covers the whole group.