SARAGOSSA. or ZARAGOzA, a city of Spain, the capital of a province of the same name, and formerly of the kingdom of Aragon. It stands on the Ebro, here a muddy stream, which divides the city into two parts, and is crossed by a noble stone bridge, built in 1437. The city has an imposing appennuiee from a distance, being adorned with numerous slender towers and spires; but the traveler, on entering it, finds it full of narrow winding lanes, instead of streets, although the houses—which are built of brick —are of must solid structure, and many of them are the palaces of e nobility who have now ceased to reside here. These buildings, rich in finely carved decorations and nisi niticent cornices, are now mostly inhabited by agriculturists of a rude class; their spacious courts converted into farm-yards, and filled with dung-heaps. Everything about the city indicates decay and poverty. Saragossa was the Celtiberian ,Suldubo, Let received the new name of Caesarea Augusta in 25 .C., of which the present name is a corruption. It was a place of importance tinder the Romans, but there are few renmins of the Roman city. Saragossa was one of the first cities of Spain in which Pagan' m was generally renounced,aud Christianity adopted; it afterward became rich in relics, to which miraculous powers were ascribed. Saragossa was taken by the Moors in the Stlt
c., and recovered from them in 1118, after a siege of five years, during which great part of the inhabitants died of hunger. It was taken by the French in 18119, after a siege of eight months, and one of the most heroic defenses recorded in the history of modern warfare. See PALAF0X. Saragossa has a university, founded in 1474. It has two cathedrals, both interesting as specimens of architecture; but the older is in a simple and severe style: the mouern one—that of Nuestra Senora del Ptlar—is very ornate. lie latter cathedral boasts of a pillar on which the Virgin descended from heaven, 40 A.D.--an event so strongly attested, that Diego de Astorent, primate of Spain, on Aug. 17, 1720, excommunicated all who even questioned it. flock from all neigh boring parts of Spain to this pillar and the imace of the Virgin, which came down from Leaven. Saragossa suffered grievously at the hands of the French in 1809, aed lost most tf its treasures of art, It Lassa considerable trade in agricultual produce, mostly earned on by the Ebro; and manufactures of silks, woolens, and leather. Pop. about C3,500.