Mudéjares were the Moorish architects and craftsmen who stayed in Spain after the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula by the Christians. The Christian kings used the skills of the Mudéjares for their representative buildings. As a result the Mudéjar style emerged, a fusion of Moorish decorative elements and the Christian architectural styles of the Romanesque and Gothic.

We visited the three sites in Zaragoza in May 2014. The exterior of the Cathedral La Seo is a weird mix of styles, from the Plaza del Pilar you can spot the Romanesque apses with Mudéjar design, the Baroque bell tower, and the Neo-Classical façade of the main entrance. The best example for the Mudéjar style is the exterior wall of the Parroquieta chapel, beautifully decorated with a geometric pattern made of bricks and glazed tiles. The exuberantly decorated interior is also worth visiting although it has no Mudéjar elements. The second site, the Parish church of San Pablo, is just a few hundred metres from the city centre. It is entirely built of brick, most striking is the octagonal bell tower with Mudéjar decorations at the upper floors.

The highlight of our visit was the Aljaferia Palace. Used as a summer palace in the 11th century, it now houses the Regional Parliament of Aragon and administrative offices, but the oldest parts are used as a museum and are open to the public. The heart of the palace is the beautiful patio of Santa Isabel (photo), the columned hall and the adjacent Islamic rooms. The rooms in the upper floors are from the Christian period, noteworthy are a series of state rooms with richly decorated coffered ceilings, called Artesonados, also a characteristic element of the Mudéjar style. The largest and most elaborate example is in the throne room.

The Aragon Mudéjar WHS comprises ten locations and I've visited only three of them, so I can not finally assess the value of the site. However, I was much more impressed by the Alcazar in Seville (that I visited ten years ago), and I suppose that the Alhambra is also a better example of Moorish architecture.