Fuendetodos

Francisco de Goya was born in Fuendetodos in 1746, in a modest stone house belonging to his mother's family, where his parents, who lived in Zaragoza, stayed for some months while his father gilded the altarpiece of the village church. The house was identified in the 1920s by the painter Ignacio Zuloaga, who bought it and made it a museum; it is furnished simply to the period rather than with original contents. Beside it, an engraving museum holds complete sets of Goya's four great print series, the Caprichos, the Disasters of War, the Tauromaquia and the Disparates, which is the substantial part of the visit and unusual to see together. Fuendetodos is a small village on the dry Zaragoza plateau with around a hundred and fifty residents and little else.

History

The village was founded in the 12th century around a castle, though its "caracoleña" stone had been quarried since Roman times for buildings in Caesaraugusta, today's Zaragoza. Goya was born here in 1746 almost by chance: his parents lived in Zaragoza, but his mother came from Fuendetodos and his father had been hired to gild the altarpiece of the new church, built in 1724 from the stones of the ruined castle, so the family stayed for some months. In the 1920s the painter Ignacio Zuloaga found Goya's birth house, bought it and made it a museum. The church's altarpiece and Goya's paintings were lost in the Spanish Civil War, and the house was renovated in the late 1980s and has drawn growing numbers of visitors since (Wikipedia, Fuendetodos).

Highlights

• The birth house - a modest stone dwelling furnished to the period.
• The four print series - complete sets of Goya's Caprichos and other suites.
• The engraving museum - the technique and context of the prints explained.
• The village - a small settlement on the dry Zaragoza plateau.

When to go

April to June and September to November; the plateau is severely hot in summer and cold in winter. The museum closes on Mondays and keeps a midday break, and visits to the house are on set hours.

Before you go

The house contains nothing of Goya's and is a reconstruction of a period interior. The village has almost no services. The prints are the reason to make the drive, and they are in low light for conservation.

Nearby

Zaragoza lies forty-four kilometres north; Belchite's ruined village is east.

Key facts