Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Castellví de la Marca

What to see and do in Castellví de la Marca (Alt Penedès, Barcelona): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments

How far each place is from the centre of Castellví de la Marca

Towns near Castellví de la Marca

Spain › Catalonia › Barcelona › Alt Penedès › Castellví de la Marca

What to see and do in Castellví de la Marca

Castellví de la Marca
Village
Castellví de la Marca is a wine-growing municipality of Alt Penedès (Barcelona), with 1,721 inhabitants and 28.7 km², whose town hall is based in the settlement of La Munia, at 193 metres above sea level; the municipal territory, mostly flat except towards the riera de Marmellar, ranges from 150 metres in the south-east to 560 in the west, next to the Montmell. Documented since the year 977, its centre lay next to the old Castellvell de la Marca, the Castellot, an 11th-century castle built on a cliff of almost 500 metres that defended the western limits of the comarca. The Torre de Can Pascol is also preserved, of medieval origin and declared Bien de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), although its upper part collapsed in 1962. The place name La Munia comes from the Arabic al-muniyya, “an estate with vegetable gardens and orchards”.
Old Castle of Castellví de la Marca
Monument
Count Borrell of Barcelona sold it in 977 to Unifred, and in 1023 it passed to Guillem I of Castellvell; it controlled the frontier with Muslim territory and was in the hands of the Montcada family, the counts of Foix, the Zúñiga family (1549) and the Fajardo family (1618), until reaching the counts of Sobradiel in 1856. It stands at 468 metres, on a steep hill of the Montmell mountain range, from where it dominates the lower Penedès plain; it formed part of a network of watch castles linked with those of Marmellar and Montmell, and with those that were built at their feet on the plain, such as those of Banyeres, Santa Oliva or Calafell. Today only the circular keep survives, badly damaged, with an interior diameter of 220 centimetres.
Castle of les Pujades
Monument
Documented since 1177, when Bertran de les Pujades granted the allodial lands of the Pacs del Penedès territory to his son Bernat, the castle later passed by marriage and inheritance among the Vilafranca and Masdovelles lineages and, after a legal dispute that dragged on until 1755, the Desvalls family, marquises of Alfarràs. In 1864 Joaquim Desvalls i de Sarriera, 5th Marquis of Alfarràs, demolished the original fortress and built in its place a large fortified farmhouse of basilical plan, taking some architectural elements to the Laberint d'Horta. Of the old fortification, solid buttressed walls survive along with a circular tower about 9 metres high, from the 14th century though with remains of earlier work, topped with battlements. Asset of National Cultural Interest (BCIN 667-MH).
Tower of Can Pascol
Monument
A watchtower and subsidiary fortress of the castle of Castellví de la Marca, built around the year 1000 atop a crag in the middle of the woods, at the edge of the cliff on the left bank of the Marmellar stream, from where it remained visually connected to that castle. Also known as Torre Rodona, it is actually rectangular in plan with rounded corners, built with irregular ashlar; it retains a height of about nine metres and had two vaulted floors, with walls up to 1.4 metres thick. The door, facing south, opens in a semicircular arch. It has an attached oval-plan annex room, contemporary with the tower, a feature that relates it to the one at the castle of Ardèvol. It is declared an asset of national cultural interest.
Tower of la Torreta
Monument
The Torre de la Torreta is a medieval tower of circular plan, built with small, irregular coursed stone, attached to the farmhouse of the same name and accessed from its upper floor, near the castle of Castellví de la Marca. It is one of the defensive towers of medieval origin built around that castle, together with those of Can Pasqual, Estalella and the Castell de les Pujades, and it is declared an asset of national cultural interest.