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Fortress of els Vilars

Arbeca, Garrigues, Lleida

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

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Fortress of els Vilars

Monument · Arbeca, Garrigues, Lleida

A protohistoric fortified settlement of Arbeca, in the comarca of les Garrigues, one of the most complete Iberian sites in Catalonia and declared an asset of national cultural interest in 1998. Occupied between 775 and 325 BC, during the Iron Age, it was built on flat ground rather than on a height, a sign of the status of its inhabitants. The enclosure, oval in plan and with 2,200 m² of habitable space, housed between 150 and 175 people under a local chief, and was protected by a wall 173 metres long and 5 metres thick, twelve towers, a stone chevaux-de-frise and a double moat 13 metres wide. Excavations, carried out between 1974 and 2017, brought to light bronze objects, Attic pottery and the oldest known rotary mills in Europe, dating from around the 5th century BC.

Photo: CRPU Mascançà (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Arbeca