The Santa Tecla Festival has brought the Castell Monestir d'Escornalbou back to life. The musical, poetic, gastronomic and cultural event has returned this weekend in this peculiar stately mansion from the early 20th century that the diplomat, Egyptologist and philanthropist Eduard Toda had built while preserving two medieval buildings: the monastery of Sant Miquel (from 1153) and a castle, in turn built on the remains of a Roman fortress. The magic of the place, a vantage point over the Baix Camp, has recovered some of its splendor after six years of works and an injection of 5.7 million euros. Throughout August visits will be free.
The works to improve the monument (also financed with European Feder funds and the 1.5% cultural fund from the Ministry of Transport) are part of the Escornalbou Renace initiative, which began six years ago to promote this heritage and natural resource, owned by the Provincial Council of Tarragona and the Generalitat de Catalunya, and turn it into a space for projection and cultural dynamism.
The Santa Teca Festival, which has been held in this space since the summer of 2015, closed yesterday a break of absence forced precisely by the restoration works and the pandemic. This weekend, finally, the spirit of Santa Teca was able to reconquer the place. The activities started on Saturday at noon with a tasting of vermouths and a dozen artistic and musical proposals. Among them, the presentation of the Argentera Memory of the godmothers and godfathers project to preserve the oral heritage; The return of Dionís and the spirituality of wine, a project in which Rafael López-Monné combines photography and historical divulgation or Theory of architecture by Jordi Abelló.
There was time for poetry and conversation, Gustavo Duch and Daniel Giraldo addressed transhumance and the importance of the figure of the shepherd, and there was also one of the Santa Teca classics, Brindis al Sol or the stories (yesterday) by Carles Alcoi . The church, the courtyard and the Camí dels Frares, now fully passable, were some of the festival settings, in which gastronomy and especially wineries (such as Barbara Forès, Solà d'Ares, Comalats, Mas del Botó 9 , Enovitis , Sanromà, Un Sol Cel or Ficària) play an essential role. In fact, the manifesto of the contest is none other than the defense of the consumption of local, seasonal, organic products "and without any type of large-scale industrial process or manipulation".
The festival ended last night, but the monument can be visited for free throughout the month of August. Restoration work has focused on the church (on the roof and on the consolidation and restoration of the walls, almost stone by stone), the towers and the entire environment of the complex, including archaeological excavations. Now lies the last phase of recovery of the monument, the most complex at a conceptual level, the new museographic project.
