Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in les Avellanes i Santa Linya

What to see and do in les Avellanes i Santa Linya (Noguera, Lleida): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 2 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of les Avellanes i Santa Linya

Castle of Santa Linya 3.7 km
Castle of Tartareu 4 km

Towns near les Avellanes i Santa Linya

What to see in Os de Balaguer 5.5 km · 5 places
What to see in Castelló de Farfanya 10 km · 2 places
What to see in Camarasa 10 km · 6 places
What to see in Àger 10 km · 15 places
What to see in Balaguer 14 km · 12 places
What to see in Algerri 14 km · 3 places
What to see in la Sentiu de Sió 15 km · 1 place
What to see in Ivars de Noguera 16 km · 1 place

Spain › Catalonia › Lleida › Noguera › les Avellanes i Santa Linya

What to see and do in les Avellanes i Santa Linya

Les Avellanes i Santa Linya
Village
Les Avellanes i Santa Linya is a municipality of the Noguera, in the province of Lleida, near the Montsec, formed by the union of four settlements: les Avellanes, the capital of the municipality, Santa Linya, Tartareu and Vilanova de la Sal. It has 434 inhabitants who live from irrigated and dry farming. Two kilometres from Santa Linya lies the Cova Gran, an important archaeological site discovered in 2002 and also a sport-climbing area. The municipality, formed in 1970 by the merger of Avellanes and Santa Liña, preserves among its heritage the ruins of the castle of Tartareu, next to its Romanesque church of San Miguel, and the churches of Santa María de Avellanes and Santa Liña, as well as the salt mountain of Vilanova de la Sal.
Castle of Tartareu
Monument
The castle of Tartareu overlooks the small settlement of the same name, part of the municipality of les Avellanes i Santa Linya, at 592 metres above sea level. It was taken from the Muslims around the year 1077 by count Ermengol IV of Urgell. The village, with barely a hundred inhabitants, also preserves remains of human occupation from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, and its surroundings are today a climbing area.
Castle of Santa Linya
Monument
The Castle of Santa Linya stands on a hill south of Santa Linya, at 595 metres above sea level, in the municipality of les Avellanes i Santa Linya, in the Noguera; it is listed as a bien de interés cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection). It was originally an Islamic fortification conquered between 1034 and 1036 by Ermengol II d'Urgell and Arnau Mir de Tost, whose 1036 charter granted territorial rights to its inhabitants; Andalusian troops recovered it between 1046 and 1048 before it returned to Christian hands. Already in the 12th century it became the regular possession of the counts of Urgell and the viscounts of Àger. Of the fortress only a wall 3.85 metres long and 0.80 metres wide survives, of irregular limestone and mortar.
Founding of Bellpuig de les Avellanes
Historical milestone
Around 1159 the hermit Joan d'Organyà brought a Premonstratensian community to the monastery of Bellpuig Vell, which in 1166 merged with the one established that same year by Guillem d'Anglesola at Bellpuig de les Avellanes, with the support of Count Ermengol VII of Urgell, who in his will of 1177 asked to be buried there. After Joan d'Organyà's death in 1180 the two communities merged and Bellpuig Vell was abandoned around 1195, while Bellpuig de les Avellanes became the most important Premonstratensian community in Catalonia; from 1303, Ermengol X turned the abbey into a comital pantheon. With the 1835 disentailment its religious activity ceased, and in 1894 its comital sarcophagi were sold to the New York museum The Cloisters, before being returned in 1967.
Sale of the tombs of the counts of Urgell
Historical milestone
In 1906 the new owner of the monastery sold the tombs of the counts of Urgell to an antiquarian for 15,000 pesetas. The tombs ended up in The Cloisters museum in New York, while the remains were repatriated to the monastery.