Village
Calders is a municipality in the south of the Moianès, in the province of Barcelona, set on a hillside and with 1,122 inhabitants. Its name gives rise to the canting arms on its coat of arms, three gold cauldrons, which were also the arms of the Calders family, former lords of the village. It lives on dry-farming agriculture, cereals and vineyards, and on pig and sheep farming. Overlooking the municipality, on a hillock surrounded by the riera de Calders, stands Calders Castle, from the 11th century and now in ruins, which belonged to the Calders family until it passed to the Talamanca family in 1336. Near the village stands the Colonia Jorba, an industrial colony founded in 1892 by the Manresa businessman Pere Jorba Gassó. The municipal area also holds a dolmen and several Romanesque churches, including that of Sant Salvador del Canadell.
Monument
Medieval fortification in the municipality of Calders (Moianès, Barcelona), atop a hill at 471 metres above sea level, surrounded by an old meander of the Calders river. Of vernacular architecture, built mostly in the 11th century, it preserves a circular tower, a perimeter wall, a later building and remains of the castle chapel, Santa Maria del Castell de Calders; the tower is collapsed by close to half, although recent works have consolidated its rocky base. Documented since 956-965, in 1023 it belonged to countess Ermessenda, widow of Ramon Borrell; between 1067 and 1336 it was in the hands of the Calders family, and in the 14th century it changed owners several times, with reinforcements ordered by king Peter III. It is declared a cultural asset of national interest.
Nature
The river of Calders rises in Monistrol de Calders, on the north-western side of the village, from the union of two streams, the Golarda and that of Sant Joan, at a point known as els Mesclants. It runs for about 10 kilometres, with a catchment of 160 km², crossing Monistrol de Calders and Calders, in the Moianès, and Navarcles, in the Bages, where it flows into the Llobregat near the Fàbrica del Molí d'en Serra. It receives tributaries such as the torrents de les Fonts, la Querosa and Bellveí, as well as the riera de Navarcles near its mouth. It is notable for its numerous meanders and for the calderes, rounded erosion formations carved by the water in the gorges along its course.
Activity
The Festa Major of Calders begins on the first Saturday of September and runs for a week, with a popular sausage barbecue, foam parties, "correfocs" fire-runs and sporting activities.
Monument
The hermitage of Sant Salvador del Canadell is a small chapel of Romanesque origin, remade with Gothic forms, in the municipal district of Calders (Moianès, Barcelona) and protected as a cultural asset of local interest. It has a rectangular plan, with a single nave ending in an apse to the east and a barrel vault; it preserves a voussoired doorway with a simple moulding and the start of a bell-gable on the west front. It is documented since 1206 and appears as a parish church between 1361 and 1438, although the rest of the documentation places it as a subsidiary of Sant Pere de Viladecavalls. In 1743 a new altarpiece was paid for, and a bronze bell of 1703 is preserved. Desecrated in 1936, it has not reopened for worship; in 1999 an excavation brought to light the original Romanesque foundations.
Curiosity
The Forn de la Calç de Calders, a cultural asset of local interest in the Moianès, is a set of two lime kilns from the mid-nineteenth century, now disused, next to a heavily renovated farmhouse. Each kiln, circular, three metres in diameter and five in height, was built of sandstone and was accessed through an advanced arch that supported a stone vault; it had an opening at ground level to remove the ashes and allow air in, and another, larger one, through which the stone and the bundles of firewood were loaded. The process consisted of extracting the stone with a mallet, loading the kiln with up to one hundred tonnes and feeding it without interruption for three days and three nights; once cooled, the stone was ground to obtain quicklime, which when wetted produced hydraulic lime. It stopped operating in the 1950s.
Curiosity
Tradition of artisan cheese and cured-meat producers in the Moianès, a leading agri-food comarca in central Catalonia.
Activity
The Festa Major d'Hivern de Calders is held beside the stream that crosses the south of the Moianès between Calders and Monistrol de Calders, in a municipality that preserves an old lime kiln, a testimony to its pre-industrial craft activity.