Castillo de Miranda crowns a rocky hilltop on the left bank of the Ebro River near Juslibol, commanding the Ebro valley approximately 4 kilometers southeast of Zaragoza. In 1118, King Alfonso I of Aragón strategically positioned this medieval fortress as a vital coordination point during the campaign to reconquer Zaragoza from Muslim forces. By the 13th century, Miranda flourished—King James I granted it charter rights in 1235 and received it for the crown in 1258. The castle's prosperity was curtailed when James II sold it to the Archbishopric of Zaragoza in 1323, after which it gradually fell into abandonment, likely due to demographic shifts caused by 14th-century epidemics.
