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Tower of els Comtals

Manresa, Bages, Barcelona

1 Villages · 14 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones

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Tower of els Comtals

Monument · Manresa, Bages, Barcelona

The Torre dels Comtals, built between the late 9th and early 11th centuries, outside the walls of Manresa near the Comdals settlement, served as a watch post on the royal road between Manresa and Barcelona and as a visual link between the old castles of Manresa and Castellgalí. It is a tower with an almost rectangular, trapezoidal plan, 5.3 by 4.9 metres and 9.2 metres high, with rubble-stone walls, originally divided into three floors with three doorways: the upper ones, reserved for guards, were only accessible by wooden ladders or ropes, while the ground floor could serve as a freely accessible refuge. Comparing photographs from 1958 with its present state shows that the monument, now within a private estate, continues to deteriorate, despite being declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection).

Photo: Elmoianes (CC BY-SA 3.0 es)

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