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Castle of Pena

Ribes de Freser, Ripollès, Girona

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones

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Castle of Pena

Monument · Ribes de Freser, Ripollès, Girona

Image of Ribes de Freser, not of the place itself.

The Castell de Pena is what remains of a castle situated between the municipal terms of Ogassa and Ribes de Freser (Ripollès, Gerona), on the puig de Sant Amanç; today only the place name and a heap of stones survive, and its history is known only through documentary records. It is first recorded in 1024, when its lord was Joan Oriol, who in 1073 ceded the parish and the castle to the monastery of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, while retaining the castellany for himself. The Oriol family kept rights over the castle, while the castellany passed to the Espasén family, which acknowledged the lordship of the abbots. In 1334 abbot Ramon de Bianya entrusted the bailiwick of the district to Pere de Ribes, at which point the castle lost its former importance. It is declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection).

Photo: Angela Llop (CC BY-SA 2.0)

What to see and do in Ribes de Freser