Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Cervelló

What to see and do in Cervelló (Baix Llobregat, 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 Cervelló

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Spain › Catalonia › Barcelona › Baix Llobregat › Cervelló

What to see and do in Cervelló

Cervelló
Village
Cervelló is a municipality in the Baix Llobregat, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, with 9,743 inhabitants over an area of 24.21 km², set on the eastern foothills of the Ordal ranges, near the Llobregat, in the valley formed by the Cervelló stream. The first records of its castle date from the year 910, the origin of the extensive lineage of the barons of Cervelló, whose coat of arms, a blue stag on a gold field, appears on the municipality's shield and, with the colours reversed, on that of neighbouring Vallirana. It preserves the castle of Cervelló and two parish churches: the old one, of Romanesque origin from the 11th century and known today as Santa María, and that of Sant Esteve de Cervelló. In 1998 the municipality lost the settlement of La Palma, which became independent as La Palma de Cervelló.
Church of Sant Ponç de Corbera
Monument
Sant Ponç de Corbera is a former Benedictine priory on a spur of the Garraf massif, in the municipality of Cervelló, although it belongs to the parish of Corbera de Llobregat, to which it has given its name since the 14th century. Documented since 1068, it became subject to Cluny in 1096 and, before 1104, came under the monastery of Sant Pere de Casserres. Its church, the only surviving part of the monastery, built in the 11th century in Lombard Romanesque style, has a single nave and transept, closed off by three semicircular apses; above the transept rises a square lantern tower, the base of the two-storey bell tower with twin windows. The exterior displays Lombard decoration, typical of early Romanesque, and in the central apse there are mural paintings with plant and geometric motifs, from the late 12th or early 13th century. In 1590 its revenues passed to the Cloistered Congregation of Tarragona.
Castle of Cervelló
Monument
The head castle (castell termenat) that gives its name to the municipality of Cervelló, in the Baix Llobregat, today in ruins and hidden among vegetation, in an elevated position above the church of Santa Maria de Cervelló. Documented since the year 904, when Count Wifredo II de Barcelona mentioned it in a donation to the monastery of Sant Cugat, in 992 the counts of Barcelona and Urgell sold it to Íñigo Arista Bonfill, of the Cervelló lineage, who made it the seat of his barony. In 1224 James I besieged it for thirteen days and took it, following the Cervelló family's clash with the monarchy; the barony changed hands several times until its demolition was ordered in 1714. Of elongated plan, it preserves the remains of a chapel and a hall with a pointed vault in its lower enclosure.
Cross of Santa Maria de Cervelló
Monument
The Creu de Santa Maria de Cervelló is a boundary cross from the 16th-17th centuries, Gothic in scheme although the base or magolla, octagonal in plan and bearing figures of religious characters, already reflects a Renaissance concept. It shows Christ crucified on the front and the Virgin on the back, with the arms ending in a lobed plant-like form. The original piece disappeared during a restoration in 1968, when a copy was left in its place, one which had also been badly damaged during the Civil War; today it is that copy that can be seen in Cervelló.
Church of Santa Maria de Cervelló
Monument
The church of Santa Maria de Cervelló stands beneath the ruins of the castle of Cervelló, south of the old town centre; it is an 11th-century Lombard Romanesque church, first recorded in 904 under the invocation of the Holy Cross, when Count Guifré II de Barcelona donated it to the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès. It passed to the Cervelló family at the end of the 11th century and was reconsecrated in 1230 after James I besieged the castle in 1223. It has a single nave with a semicircular apse, and the first bay is covered by a dome that forms an octagonal lantern tower on the outside, with no bell tower. Master Lleonard Bosc added a Renaissance portal to it in 1587; it was abandoned in 1872 when the new parish church was built, and was restored and reopened for worship in 1922 as Santa Maria de Cervelló.