HUESCA (anc. Osca), the capital of the Spanish province of Huesca, 35 m. N.N.E. of Saragossa, on the Tardienta-Huesca Jaca railway. Pop. (1930), 14,632. Huesca occupies a height near the right bank of the river Isuela, overlooking a broad and fertile plain. Strabo (iii. 161, where some editors read Ileosca) describes Osca as a town of the Ilergetes, and the scene of Sertorius's death in 72 B.C. ; while Pliny places the Oscenses in regio Vescitania. Plutarch (loc. cit.) calls it a large city. Julius Caesar names it Vencedora; and the name by which Augustus knew it, Urbs victrix Osca, was stamped on its coins, and is still preserved on its arms. In 1096 Pedro I. of Aragon regained it from the Moors, after winning the decisive battle of Alcoraz. Huesca is an episcopal see and has an imposing Gothic cathedral, begun in 1400, finished in 1515, and enriched with fine carving. In the same plaza is the old palace of the kings of Aragon, form erly given up for the use of the now closed Sertoria (the uni versity), so named in memory of a school for the sons of native chiefs, founded at Huesca by Sertorius in 77 B.C. (Plut. Sert. 15) . Huesca manufactures cloth, pottery, bricks and leather; but its chief trade is in the cereals, wine, fruit and vegetables produced in the Hoja.