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Photo: Ivanhercaz, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Discovered when doing urban works in the 1970s, this exposes much of the Roman theatre. Much better preserved ones exist in Spain (e.g. Badajoz) and elsewhere, but it's still impressive. The museum has a very good section on the history of the site, including its occupation by Muslims when they ruled the area and as the city's Jewish quarter up to the end of the 15th century, as well as on how the theatre operated.
The Roman Theater of Zaragoza is a Roman theatre in the Roman colonia of Caesaraugusta –present-day Zaragoza, Spain–, in the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. It was built in the first half of the 1st century AD, in the Age of Tiberius and Claudius, following the model of the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome. It was used for Roman theatrical performances and had a capacity of 6,000 spectators in a city where only lived 18.000 people. Currently in ruins, it was active until the third century.
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Ibercaja Collection
Museum displaying a collection of Goya and temporary exhibitions. (March 2026: temporarily closed.)
Another example of Mudéjar architecture, with a square tower and polygonal apse reminiscent of that of la Magdalena. It retained a richly-gilded Renaissance high altar by Damian Forment, but its tower did not escape a baroque intervention in the form of a spire.
La Seo de Zaragoza
Located on the Plaza de la Seo, the cathedral is referred to as la seo ("the see") to distinguish it from the other cathedral, el pilar. La Seo has originally been constructed one the site one of the first mosques during the Moorish domination of Aragon, built perhaps as early as the 8th century, and destroyed to make way for a romanesque church in the 12th century. Zaragoza became an independent diocese in the 14th century and the church became its cathedral, immediately being afforded renovations in the gothic and moorish (mudéjar) styles. Many other reconstructions followed, due to both changing tastes and architectural necessities, as parts of the cheaply-built cathedral began to fail over time, including a collapse in the 15th century.
In the 17th century, the church has been involved in a canon law battle with the newly-reconstructed Basilica of Our Lady on the Pillar over which should be the seat of the diocese and thus the cathedral, which finally saw Pope Clement X declare them joint cathedrals with special provisions to make sure both enjoy equal status. La Seo is now a mixture of styles spanning between 12th and 19th centuries, and features an exquisite collection of tapestries. Entrance closes sometimes during the day when there's mass.
Distinctive for its square tower and polygonal apse, la Magdalena stands out within the old town of Zaragoza as one of the few relatively intact examples of Mudéjar architecture of the 14th century. That said, its interior was renovated in the baroque period.
Almost everything here is from the era of the emperor Tiberius: it was the site of the original forum from Augustus' time, but it was all demolished after the river flooded, and materials from it were used as filler when raising the street level 4-7 metres, and building a bigger one. As well as models of the two versions, there's the opportunity to walk along a Roman sewer.