Borau has small town status which gives some indication of its past importance as a population centre and as a well-known point of reference for agriculture, sheep and cattle raising and forestry activities. The vestiges of its faded glory are visible throughout the village in some façades and in the imposing structure of many of its houses, restored with great sensitivity.

Borau is located at an altitude of 1,008 metres and is bisected by the Lubierre river, a tributary of the Aragón. At the entrance to the village stands the old school, built in the 1930s and a beautiful and unusual example of civil architecture in the Pyrenees. The village streets are narrow, cobbled and full of interesting details and the 16th-century church overlooks the village from a promontory. Borau’s slate roofs and traditional Pyrenean chimneys make it one of the best preserved villages in the area.

Close to Borau is the chapel of St Adrian of Sasabe (10th century), which was once part of one of the most important monasteries of the High Middle Ages, although now only the church remains surrounded by the Cancil and Lupan river beds.

There are many theories regarding Sasabe but the most recognised over time is the version of events established by Father Raymond of Huesca in the 19th century, according to which St Adrian was a Visigothic monastery to which the bishops of Huesca fled during the moorish invasion. They took the Holy Grail with them, which would explain the historical significance of the monastery in Christendom. It appears that the monastery was the archdiocese of Aragon from the 10th century to the establishment of the Jaca diocese in 1077. St Adrian of Sasabe has a single rectangular nave with a chancel and a semicircular apse covered with a quarter-sphere vault. The interior is sober in the extreme. The only decorational element on the walls is an overhanging impost. There are more decorational features on the exterior of the building, including a chequered frame around the arch of the southern doorway. The western doorway displays several examples typical of the Romanesque of Jaca as well as other characteristics which recall the nearby chapel of St Mary of Iguacel.

Text taken from the Jacetania Area Signposting Plan. 2001-2006