The colonization villages of the Cinco Villas

a proposal addressing expectations for their development

Abstract

In Aragon, in what is now the Cinco Villas Region, 10 new towns and various hydraulic infrastructure works, roads and so on were built, which were included in the Colonisation Plan for the Bardenas Area based on a policy applied on a national level from 1939 for the economic and social conversion of large areas, improvement of rural surroundings and the living conditions of people living in the country.

An analysis has been conducted on the urban structure of the ten colonised towns and their general features have been summarised. Each of the 10 towns is of a specific type within a regular urban development model, an idea of form provided by the architects involved who accept the limits dictated by the circumstances at the time, where an attempt is made to fulfil a certain assignment and schedule, bearing in mind the specific conditions of the place and terrain.

Due to the special nature of these colonised towns, their unknown image and location, a tourist route has been designed that focuses on rural architecture and urban development, as an option for developing and making them dynamic, which in this way takes on a real territorial dimension, with sufficient capacity to diversify knowledge of the countryside and the towns themselves, connected as supplementary itineraries to the current routes available at present or to be created in the Cinco Villas Region (historic, green and natural centres, pools, picturesque places, walking tracks and excursions, bicycle tracks, paths and cattle tracks, etc. ), and the regional and territorial relationship with the neighbouring areas, which provides different ideas about the interaction between mankind and the environment, handicrafts, gastronomy and other aspects to enrich human knowledge.