Under the slogan "En avant pour Saragosse", the route retraced the advance of French troops as they sought to enter Zaragoza through the breach on Asalto Street. Participants set out from San Miguel Square and reached the convent of San José, which had been reinforced as part of the city’s outer defenses during the conflict.
The tour also offered a chance to see the walls on Asalto Street and attend a small reenactment of the capture of the Goicoechea mill, from where French troops dug an underground mine to blow up the city wall.
The then-president of the Los Sitios Cultural Association, Gonzalo Aguado, highlighted that the initiative, which began as a guided tour, "has become a genuine All Saints’ Day event". The day concluded in the underground crypt of El Pilar, where Palafox is buried, with a solemn wreath-laying ceremony in memory of those who defended Zaragoza.
Far from losing interest after the bicentennial celebrations, the route attracted increasingly larger crowds. Aguado explained that each edition explored different sites, from the Aljafería to Portillo, Casablanca and Arrabal, in order to uncover new details of local history.
The association’s president summed up the potential of those events with a reflection: "If this were Hollywood, there would be a billion movies, but we are content with a route to explain it to anyone willing to listen".
The reconstruction of the French advance and the tribute to Zaragoza’s defenders marked that 21st edition of a route that continued to attract participants. This is how we reported it in Aragón Digital 15 years ago, when Zaragoza residents once again walked the streets that had been the setting for Los Sitios.
