Belchite

Belchite lies in the dry country south of Zaragoza. After Alfonso the Battler took the town in the early twelfth century, he established a military confraternity here in 1122 to defend the frontier against al-Andalus. The castle and the settlement around it formed part of the advancing Christian kingdom of Aragon. Centuries later, Spanish and French forces fought in the vicinity during the Peninsular War in 1809.