Village
Isona i Conca Dellà, known as dinosaur country thanks to the Museu de la Conca Dellà and the fossil egg sites of Basturs, is a municipality of 1,038 inhabitants (INE 2025) in Pallars Jussà, with its town hall based in the town of Isona. It was formed in 1970 by the merger of the former municipalities of Benavent de Tremp, Conques, Figuerola de Orcau, Isona, Orcau and Sant Romà de Abella, which had themselves absorbed other smaller settlements such as Covet, Montadó, Biscarri, Bastús and Montesquiu; the combined municipality then took the name Conca d'Allà, changed in the 1980s to the present Isona i Conca Dellà. Today it groups together fourteen settlements or population entities spread across the Conca Dellà valley.
Monument
The Romanesque church of Covet, considered one of the most notable in the Pyrenees, is situated on the south side of the settlement of Covet, in the municipality of Isona i Conca Dellà, in Pallars Jussà. The image of the Virgen de Covet presides over this old rural parish, which in 1990 had barely eight permanent inhabitants, and the building is considered one of the main examples in the comarca and a quite singular piece of Catalan Romanesque art. The site of Covet is documented as early as the year 949, on the occasion of the consecration of the church of Sant Cristòfol de Salinoves. From the priory of Covet came the famous Santo Cristo de Conques, a Gothic carving burned during the unrest of 1936 and today venerated in the church of Sant Miquel de Conques as a reproduction.
Monument
Romanesque castle from the early 11th century (around 1010), with a double fortified perimeter with circular towers and semicircular bastions at the corners; the inner quadrangular precinct is better preserved than the outer one. The adjoining Romanesque church, dedicated to the Mare de Déu de la Pietat, preserves only the apse and the north wall. It was the seat of the important Barony of Orcau, whose lord Arnau d'Orcau rose to steward of Pere III and governor of the Rosselló and the Cerdanya (1366-76); it later passed to the Erill family and to the dukes of Híjar. A Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category).
Monument
A medieval fortified precinct of the settlement of Orcau, in the municipality of Isona i Conca Dellà (Pallars Jussà, Lleida), at 765 metres above sea level. It retains a vila closa with a defensive gateway, with arrow slits and voussoirs, and a two-storey structure above it topped with a machicolation. Orcau belonged to the possessions of the Count of Erill within the sotsvegueria of Pallars; in 1831 it had about 80 inhabitants and was under the lordship of the Count of Aranda, Baron of Orcau, within the district of Talarn. It has been declared a cultural asset of national interest since 8 November 1988.
Monument
Romanesque castle documented since 1055 (some sources cite 1007), of which only three walls survive forming the northeast corner, with well-cut ashlars joined with lime mortar; a rectangular tower and several stretches of wall that survived into the 20th century were badly damaged on the 1938 front during the Civil War. It belonged to the counts of Barcelona and, in 1281, to the barons of Orcau, under whose dominion it became the most populous place in the barony. A Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category).
Monument
The fortified precinct of Isona brings together the surviving remains, from Roman and medieval times, of a tower and a gateway of the old town wall of Isona, the seat of the municipality of Isona i Conca Dellà (Pallars Jussà). It is declared a cultural asset of national interest. The facing is made up of large stone blocks of varying types, cut into prismatic shapes. In the lower part of the tower a fountain is preserved today.
Monument
11th-century Romanesque fortress, with tall walls and rectangular structures, among them a possible tower and a vaulted chamber; today in ruins, with wall fragments whose plan cannot be made out without archaeological excavation. It belonged to the former municipality of Conques, was probably conquered by Arnau Mir de Tost, and served as a bailiwick castle; in the 14th century it passed to the barony of Orcau, and in the 20th century it became a farmhouse. A Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category) (there is another of the same name in Sant Mateu de Bages, which should not be confused with this one).
Monument
13th-century medieval poble clos (walled village) atop a small hill, which preserves five access gates -three original, among them those of Marquesó, de la Font, and de Marisans- along with stretches of wall. Declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category) on November 8, 1988, and included in the Inventory of Catalan Architectural Heritage (IPAC: 1047).
Monument
The castle of Llordà stands in the municipality of Isona i Conca Dellà, a little less than a kilometre north-east of the village of Llordà, on the same hill but at a higher point, from where it dominates much of the landscape of the comarca of Pallars Jussà. For centuries it was the nerve centre of the old territory of Isona, and the village bearing its name formed around it, within the outermost of its three walled enclosures. Neglect left it hidden beneath a holm-oak forest and reduced to a heap of ruins, which made it difficult to study; over the last two decades it has been cleared, excavated and partly rebuilt, so that it can be visited once again, in a setting where guided visits to the Parc Cretaci are also organised.
Monument
Romanesque castle documented since 1055, one of the most important in the county of Pallars between the 10th-12th centuries, which gave its name to the Galliner lineage -Guillem Folc de Galliner was a vassal of Count Bernat between 1080 and 1110-. Today barely any visible vestiges remain, though archaeological surveys have revealed remains of the old settlement. In 1365 it passed under the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Urgell, which held it until the 19th century; a protected archaeological zone since 1949.
Monument
The Museu de la Conca Dellà, in the town of Isona, within the municipality of Isona i Conca Dellà, brings together two kinds of collections: one paleontological, devoted to dinosaurs, and another on local history. On its paleontological side it serves as the reception centre for the Parc Cretaci de la Conca Dellà, which encompasses several sites in the area, such as that of the Mare de Déu de la Posa, as well as the egg and footprint sites of Basturs. The museum was made possible thanks to the efforts of a group of Isona residents and the collaboration of the Generalitat's Directorate General for Territorial Action and European Union ERDF funds, coordinated by the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
Nature
Palaeontological site unique in the world for its preservation of spherical dinosaur eggs twenty centimetres in diameter.
Activity
The fiesta mayor of Isona i Conca Dellà is celebrated in the town that occupies the site of Aeso, a city of pre-Roman name that attained municipal status in imperial times; the present-day municipality was formed in 1970 from the merger of six villages of the Conca Dellà and is today known for the dinosaur egg sites of Basturs.
Historical milestone
Isona occupies the site of Aeso, a city of pre-Roman name that in the imperial period attained municipal status. It preserves stretches of wall and Latin inscriptions gathered in the local museum, testimony of the Romanisation of the Conca Dellà.
Historical milestone
A decree of 1970 merged six municipalities of the Conca Dellà: Benavent de Tremp, Conques, Figuerola d'Orcau, Isona, Orcau and Sant Romà d'Abella. The initial name, Conca d'Allà, was corrected at once to the present one.