In Northeast Spain, wildfires continue to spread, prompting authorities on Thursday (13th) to urgently evacuate the remains of three kings who ruled the Aragon region from the 11th to early 12th century to protect the precious historical heritage from being destroyed by the fires.
According to Reuters, Mar Vaquero, the Vice President of the Aragon Autonomous Community, stated that the remains of the three kings had been temporarily moved from the threatened San Juan de la Peña Monastery to a museum in the province of Huesca, about 80 kilometers south, until the fire and environmental conditions improve.
Vaquero mentioned that the wildfire started on Monday (10th) and by Thursday evening, the flames began to approach the mountainous San Juan de la Peña Monastery. Concerned that the monastery might be engulfed by the fire, authorities immediately initiated an emergency operation to salvage the cultural artifacts.
An emergency military force successfully entered the monastery located in the mountains and relocated the funeral attire of the 10th Count of Aranda, buried in the area (18th century). However, due to the rapidly advancing flames, rescue personnel were forced to withdraw.
Subsequently, with the accompaniment of police and cultural heritage officials, the rescue team once again entered the monastery, successfully evacuating the remains of the earliest three kings of Aragon (reigned from 1035 to 1104) along with some historical paintings from The Pantheon.
Affected by high temperatures and strong winds, the wildfires in Spain intensified on Thursday; as of now, the fires have consumed over 9,000 hectares of land and forced residents of 16 towns to evacuate.
Interestingly, as of Friday morning, the San Juan de la Peña Monastery remains unharmed.
Meanwhile, in Southern Spain, another larger-scale wildfire continues to worsen. This wildfire has currently burned around 31,000 hectares of land in the province of Huelva, forcing approximately 700 people to evacuate.
Translation of Tweet: “Rescue the remains of the first Aragonese kings from a monastery surrounded by the fires of Osca”
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