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Castellet Castle is located in the medieval town of Castellet i la Gornal. It is located within the Foix Natural Park, in the Alt Penedès region. It is a fortification built on a hill, as we see in this report in La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos, intended for surveillance since the time of the Iberians.
Located in the Penedès wine region, Castellet is one of those charming, small, cozy towns that attracts you from the first moment.
The best way to start the walk through this photogenic town is to access it through the signs that indicate the swamp and the castle, since from the upper area you can get good views, although the most impressive are those that can be seen in the Foix reservoir, which is located at the bottom and that reflect the profile of the population like a perfect mirror.
The castle currently belongs to a private foundation that has managed to preserve the architecture and history of this charming town in the Penedès.
The Foix River, shortly after receiving the waters of the Marmellar stream, describes a closed curve, like a meander, that frames a rocky, narrow and elevated peninsula. Castellet Castle sits almost at its highest point. The place is suitable for building a fortification. Perhaps, for this reason, Castellet Castle has 2,500 years of history.
The first fortress, archaeologically dated, is from the Iberian period. The Roman occupation of the site has also been confirmed. Every construction is always done with some purpose.
We are convinced that the main reason that moved our ancestors to build this building was the control and protection of the roads and other means of communication.
As is already known, the Iberians built the Via Heráclia, a spacious road that crossed the country from north to south and which represented a great advance in communications at the time.
In the past, when it was very difficult to open new roads, rivers, streams and even torrents were highly valued as means of communication. In fact, the water current naturally opened a passage into the interior of the territory.
The castle of Castellet was a perfect watchtower and had an unbeatable position to simultaneously control the passage of the River Foix and the Via Heráclia, which traveled further to the north. As time went by, this building acquired great added value, especially since the Romans built the Via Augusta.
This true highway of antiquity, which followed a route similar to the Via Heráclia, was in operation for many centuries. Well, perched on top of the Castellet keep, they were able to monitor the roads for many generations.
The roads in general were a blessing that needed to be guarded, that is, to prevent raiders from bothering travelers or damaging the road itself. But dangerous enemies could also arrive through the communication routes that had to be detected as soon as possible.
For this reason, the castle towers had a communication system between them that consisted of fire at night and smoke or, eventually, mirrors during the day, which they used to announce danger.
Until the 10th century, which is when documentation about Castellet Castle begins to appear, we can say very little about its history. However, we can make some statements.
The occupation of the buildings, with different degrees of intensity, continued from the Ibero-Roman period to the county period. The architectural structure of the keep and some walls may suggest renovations during the Andalusian period.
The documentation of the 10th century informs us of a fortification, but does not specify whether it is large or small. Instead, it details the entire area of land that was under the control of this castle. Apart from the current term of Castellet and Gornal, the terms of Arboç, Bellvei and Calafell were also included in the territory of the castle of Castellet.
In its extensive area there were other fortifications and towers with which it communicated when appropriate. Medieval documentation explains to us that in the year 977 this castle and its terminus belonged to Count Borrell II of Barcelona. On June 11 of this year 977 the count sold Castellet to Unifred Amat. This character belonged to a family that had extensive possessions in different places in the county, they are also the initiators of the important Castellvell lineage.
The next person we find documented is Bernat Otger de Castellet, grandson of Unifred Amat. He had other castles such as those of Pontons and Grevalosa, he also held rights to Albinyana and Calders. It should be noted that both he and his son knew how to read and write. In 1076 he was already dead and his son Rotllan Bernat sold half of the Castellet castle to Count Ramon Berenguer I. In the year 1099 Pere Bertran de Castellet was the new feudal lord of the castle.
According to archaeological data, in the 10th century the walled enclosure, the keep and some signs of cabins already existed. The beautiful church of the castle, located in the east, a short distance from the fortification and dedicated to Saint Peter, is documented for the first time on February 7, 1106.
In the 12th-13th centuries there were a series of lords of Castellet who all responded to the same name: Bertran de Castellet. One of them participated in the conquest of Ciurana. One of them made a will in the year 1195 and from this document, due to the large number of leaves he made and assets he transferred, we can say that he was a man who had multiple possessions that went from the Llobregat river to Tortosa. His son was also called Bertran and his family was very emotionally linked to Castellet since in his last wishes he asked to be buried in the church of San Pedro de Castellet.
On August 18, 1206, in the will of Berenguer de Castellet, canon of the cathedral of Barcelona, it is read that he leaves the palacio (palatium) of Castellet to his sister Saurina.
Due to the number of people living in this palace, it must have been of considerable size. They also owned silver household items and Saracen slaves.
In September 1229, Saurina de Castellet exchanged rights to her respective territories with Ferrer de Sant Martí. Around the same time, King James I confirmed to Saurina de Castellet her rights over Castellet Castle.
In April 1307, Bertran de Castellet, son of Gispert de Castellet, swears and pays homage to King Jaime II over the castle of Castellet.
At the end of the 14th century Blascó de Castellet claims to have the castle as a fief for the king, he left it to his son Bertran and he transferred it to his brother also called Blascó.
The Torrelles family decided to acquire all rights to Castellet. Thus in 1405 Pere de Torrelles bought the fief of Castellet in Blascó and from King Martin the Human the jurisdiction of the same castle, that is, the mere and mixed empire.
Pere de Torrelles i Gurrea, son of the buyer, sells Castellet to priest Francí Desplà on November 16, 1453. From Desplà it passed to the Requesens and on December 26, 1472 Luis de Requesens sells to Guillermo de Peralta, treasurer of the lord king , the castle of Castellet. Here begins a period of litigation for the possession of Castellet that will last more than 50 years.
The Torrelles, the Requesens and the Peraltas fight tirelessly, above all, against the Peraltas. Gracia Roman y de Peralta, wife of Guillermo de Peralta, now a widow, had to face this string of lawsuits.
At a time when women counted for little and, perhaps for this reason, they thought that Gràcia Roman would soon give in before the courts. Nothing could be further from the truth in which it is necessary to highlight the bravery and courage of this woman.
He defended the rights of his son Benet de Peralta with a drive that should surprise more than one man. The fights and brawls did not end and the Peraltas, probably tired, handed over Castellet to a niece named Ángela Aguilar on November 3, 1550.
In 1606 Francisco de Aguilar y de Peralta became lord of Castellet. In 1615 his widow, María de Aguilar y de Icart, made an inventory of his assets. Just from the length, 70 pages, we can get an idea of the amount of real estate and personal property they owned. From the description of Castellet Castle we can deduce that it was no longer in a time of splendor, especially with regard to furniture and household items.
The building had several rooms: a cellar and a celleret, a stable, a kitchen, a kneader, a pantry, a prison, a cistern and a room called the entrance to the cistern, a weapons room, a small room, a chamber near from the roof, a bedroom, another bedroom that has a window towards the old mill, a room called the women's room, a room of which they do not say the name, a room named after the mill, a room they call "the necessary one" ( this is the latrine or common), a room called the Aragonese and a room called the tower.
All rooms were furnished with the corresponding facing, although in some cases it was specified that it was not in good condition. It is worth highlighting a large number of utensils related to cooking and food, spread across several rooms compared to the small amount of clothing listed.
In the armory there were, among other things, three halberds, a shotgun, five harquebuses, seven crossbows and we highlight an iron "breastplate" and "backplate", which is part of the armor worn by Don Quixote, a contemporary of this inventory. Yes, in prison there is a stump of wood in good condition.
Following the description of the building, we talk about a new store located in Castellet Square. It is probably the square or esplanade in front of the castle, although its location is not specified. Daughter of Francisco de Aguilar and his wife María was Dionisia de Aguilar who in 1616 married Cristóbal de Icart. The girl died young and her husband was left as administrator of Castellet on behalf of her daughter Maria de Icart.
In this way Castellet passed from the Aguilars to the Icarts. From the Icarts it passes, also by marriage, to the Queralts, counts of Santa Coloma.
In 1778 house masters and carpenters were hired to make repairs in the “offices”, in the two mills, the new and the old, in the ice well and also in the Castle of Castellet. In 1815, Joan de Queralt, count of Santa Coloma, was lord of Castellet.
We know that in 1883, the castle was destroyed and presented an image of a majestic romantic ruin. The castle, in 1923, came into the hands of Josep de Peray y March, diocesan archivist of Barcelona, and he carried out a restoration in neo-Gothic style between the years 1928-1930.
In 1999, the Acesa company acquired the building and carefully rehabilitated it. In April 2014, the UNESCO-Abertis Foundation Center for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves was inaugurated in the castle of Castellet and la Gornal, headquarters of the first public and private collaboration participated by this United Nations agency.
The main objective of this center is to deepen the knowledge and management of the natural spaces of the Mediterranean.
The town of Castellet, with 86 inhabitants in 2005, is at 159 meters above sea level, on a cliff of soft Miocene stone, on the left bank of the Foix river, which forms a meander that surrounds it. At the foot of the cliff the Marmellar stream converges, which gave strategic importance to the Castellet castle, which dominated the passage through the lands of Alt and Baix Penedès at the top of the hill.
The town is made up of a series of houses that rise from the castle at the foot of the road, many with large square or round doorways; The old common house is from 1906.
The population (Castellenses) has access to the recreational and cultural activities of the Castellenca Recreational Society. Celebrate the main festival on the first Sunday in August.
On an even higher level is the parish church of San Pedro de Castellet, not as old as the castle (the original church was dedicated to San Esteban); Of Romanesque origin, it has a large semicircular portal facing the castle, preceded by a large barrel-vaulted atrium with a bright archway; The temple has a nave and on the north façade there is a large wall bell tower with four bays (the rest is a bell); The old rectory attached to the church dates from 1878.
This church is mentioned in 1195 (Bertran de Castellet chose it to be buried); In 1484 it received that of Sant Esteve as suffragan, and in 1739, that of Sant Marçal.
The artist from Cuenca Luis Zafrilla, painter, designer, sculptor and creator of the technique of illustrated landscapes, has carried out the project Castellet Encantat.
In the municipal parking lot at the entrance we are welcomed by a group of men working on the quarry. You have to get closer to see that it is a recreation of the Cuenca artist Luis Zafrilla, who wanted to pay tribute to these workers from another era with one of his realistic sculptures-paintings made on Corten steel and painted in 3D.
Around the town we will come across these works, from the work of the mules carrying firewood for the bread oven, some women with their children chatting at the entrance of the bakery, the priest accompanied by the altar boy, or a Penelope who instead to scan the Mediterranean, look for Ulysses among the waters of the Foix Reservoir.
In his hometown, in Valdemeca (Cuenca), Zafrilla has also created a small open-air museum with the same technique, and as in that one, for Castellet's sculptures he has used current neighbors as models for the different characters.
It is precisely to the work of viticulture that Zafrilla pays his last tribute in the work located next to the church of Sant Pere.
On one side there is a sculpture called "banda or Möbius strip", in the style of the traditional Catalan rajola, the artist recreates a calendar with the different tasks, from plowing, pruning, harvesting or wine making, on a steel and methacrylate structure in which the viewer is enthralled by the details and views that are contemplated through the polychrome of the drawings, which correspond to the real ones that are just behind each one.
The streets lead us towards the castle and the hermitage, the old bread oven, which was set up by the La Castellense neighborhood cooperative in the middle of the Civil War and which was in operation until the 60s of the last century, has recently been recovered, although in the old oven The bread of the day is no longer baked with firewood.
Ascending through the cobblestone streets, a few meters from the Castell, it is well worth a stop to contemplate one of Zafrilla's works in Corten steel and take one of those photos with which to show off, through the 'transparent' steel figures you can see Montserrat and La Giralda de Arbós.
The swamp is integrated within the Natural Park of about 3,100 protected hectares, in it you can appreciate all the green arms of this "wet oasis" between the regions of Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès and El Garraf, in the heart of the Coastal Cordillera.
The only wetland in the middle of these dryland regions, with changing colors, the evergreen green of the pine forest, later merged with the ocher and reddish autumnal colors of poplars and oaks, which sneak between the cliffs of the park.
The silhouette of the medieval village of Castellet i la Gornal is blurred, reflected in the emerald water of the reservoir, along the whole bend in the marsh.
It seems that nature has willingly adopted the dam and the swamp as part of itself, the works on this reservoir began in 1901, "just at the time of the development of this inland area, with the arrival of the telephone, light and the road", initiative of the community of irrigators of Vilanova y Geltrú, after the enormous crisis that phylloxera caused in these vineyard lands at the end of the 19th century, in an attempt to replace dryland crops with irrigated ones.
The dam was not inaugurated until 1928, although work continued for a few more years. What was conceived as a hydraulic work, for agricultural use and urban water purification, has become a space of living nature.
Swimming and sports activities are not permitted in the green swamp. The forest of pines, alders, ashes, poplars and willows stands out, and the riverside vegetation of reeds, myrtles, sarsaparillas and palmettos will accompany us along with a symphony of crickets, cicadas and birds.
A road will take us to Font d' Horta. Now, the three water pipes, the canal and the small laundry room are dry and full of brush, but the corner is still a cool and shady space to rest.
We continue to Cal Bladet, an old farmhouse with high walls, to protect itself from bandits, and which is one of the few homes still standing within the park.
For bird lovers, you will find on the edge of the reservoir where there are two bird observatories, the keys to the one closest to the town center can be requested at the Castellet i la Gornal Tourist Office.
Gray and white herons, ducks, grebes, harriers, coots and moorhens are present all year round. At the beginning of September, the large migrations of cormorants, kites, egrets, oxen... begin to arrive and, during their short rest stops, black storks, great sandpipers and ospreys can be seen.
From Cal Bladet, the path begins where it becomes a path of about 75 cm. wide, from which we have a wonderful panoramic view of the reservoir and the town crowned by its castle, until meeting the dam, inaugurated in 1928. You can cross through the authorized area and return to the town in a section without many slopes on the way. the Escola de Natura Cuabarrada (the cuabarrada is the Bonelli's eagle), where the little ones have an adventure park and environmental education workshops.
About 800 meters from the town is the old Romanesque church of Sant Esteve de Can Llopart, near the Can Llopart Mill, an old Romanesque temple with a single nave, with a three-lobed apse, an octagonal dome and a three-space belfry; On the west façade, the door with a semicircular arch stands out. It is assumed that it replaced a pre-Romanesque church mentioned in 976 as the possession cell of Sant Cugat del Vallès.
There are abundant vestiges from the Roman period (pottery, coins, burials and a paving). Remains of mural paintings have been discovered in the church, which is property of the bishopric of Barcelona.
Near the drinking fountain of the Can Llopart Mill, it was identified by Manuel Trens, a Roman milestone, now in Barcelona (A milestone or milestone, a word from the Latin miliarium, is a cylindrical, oval or parallelepiped column that was placed on the edge of the Roman roads to indicate the distances every thousand passus, that is, each Roman mile, which is equivalent to a distance of approximately 1,480 meters, which would seem to confirm the passage of the Via Augusta through these contours.
Over the Estalella torrent, which is behind the church of Sant Esteve, there is an old bridge with an arch, which could be from Roman times, the torrent later joins the Foix river.
Very close we can also find the church of Santa María de Muntanyans, at the top of a 195-meter hill. It has a single nave, an apse destroyed by the lengthening of the chapel, side walls with buttresses, a round portal with an archivolt and a belfry. It was partially destroyed in 1936, rebuilt and whitewashed. The first mention is from 1341, but the building seems earlier.
