Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Pontons

What to see and do in Pontons (Alt Penedès, Barcelona): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 2 Nature · 1 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Pontons

Towns near Pontons

Spain › Catalonia › Barcelona › Alt Penedès › Pontons

What to see and do in Pontons

Pontons
Village
Pontons is a municipality of the Barcelona Alt Penedès, with 516 inhabitants who live mainly on dry farming, especially vines and cereals. The place is first recorded in 966, and in 1066 the counts of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer I and Almodis acquired it, appointing Guillermo Bernardo de Ódena as lord of the castle. The Castell Nou de Pontons, a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) on the turó de Sant Joan, had as its temple the Romanesque chapel of Sant Joan de la Muntanya, built in the 11th century; in 1271 the castle and its lands passed to the monastery of Santes Creus, a sale confirmed in 1363 by Peter the Ceremonious. It also preserves the Romanesque church of Santa Magdalena, rebuilt in the 13th century.
New Castle of Pontons
Monument
The Castell Nou de Pontons crowns the hill of Sant Joan, above the gorge of the Pontons stream, commanding a wide view of the Alt Penedès. First mentioned in 996, when Hug de Cervelló acquired it along with other strongholds, by 1067 it was already distinguished from a nearby “old castle”; that same year the counts of Barcelona granted it in fief to Guillem Bernat d'Òdena. Of the stronghold, formed by a circular tower and a large enclosure, only a southern stretch of the tower survives today, 1.5 metres high with walls 2.85 metres thick; from the size of the remains it is reckoned to have reached about 20 metres in height. In 1271 it passed to the monastery of Santes Creus, confirmed by King Peter III in 1363.
Farmhouse of Pontons
Monument
Beneath the Sierra d'Ancosa, next to a small cultivated plain in the territory of Pontons, in the Alt Penedès, this large farmhouse of the 17th-18th centuries stands on the former castle of Pontons: the 1358 hearth-tax record shows that Jaume d'Avinyó held the “quadra del Mas de Pontons”. In the 17th century it belonged to the Boixadors family. Rectangular in plan, with ground floor, mezzanine, two upper floors and attic, it has a voussoired entrance door, windows with stone frames and sills, and a machicolation and brick turrets at the top. In front stands the chapel of Sant Miquel, blessed in 1668 and now used as a stable, single-naved and without an apse, with a wooden roof over a diaphragm arch. It is declared a cultural asset of national interest.
Tower of Cal Rei
Monument
The Torre de Cal Rei stands on a plateau to the west of Pontons, beneath the Sierra d'Ancosa, in the former territory of the castle of Pontons, documented since the 10th century. It is a quadrangular building of about 8 by 8.5 metres and 10 to 11 metres high, with walls 0.92 metres thick, divided into three bays by an interior wall with three voussoired doors, one per floor, and accessed through a round arch of eight voussoirs on the eastern facade. It was built towards the end of the 12th century or in the 13th as a fortified residence of the lesser nobility; towards the 15th century, with the extinction of many knightly lineages, it passed to agricultural use. It is declared a cultural asset of national interest.
Cal Xamanet
Monument
Farmhouse situated in the upper part of the territory of Pontons, in the hamlet of Campdàsens; together with the towers of Cal Rei and Can Guixó it forms a group of farmhouses organised around a medieval defence tower to which it is attached. Almost square in plan, it has three storeys under a gabled roof; the entrance door, facing south, must have been topped by a voussoired arch now hard to make out because it is charred. It retains buttresses and arrow slits, and at the corners, large, well-cut ashlars. No documentary record survives of its exact origin, although it lay within the territory of the castle of Pontons and probably formed part of the possessions of the monastery of Santes Creus. The building, much altered, remains inhabited.
Sierras of Miralles-Queralt
Nature
Protected natural area of ranges and valleys in the south-west of the Alt Penedès.
Burial Site of la Serra del Tall
Curiosity
Prehistoric burial site in the municipal district of Pontons.
Iberian Site of Font Pollina
Nature
Settlement of the Iberian period in the municipal district of Pontons.