Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Alfés

What to see and do in Alfés (Segrià, Lleida): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Alfés

Fortified Walled Village of Alfés 100 m
Castle of Vinfaro 1.6 km

Towns near Alfés

What to see in Sunyer 2.4 km · 2 places
What to see in Alcanó 4.4 km · 2 places
What to see in Montoliu de Lleida 5 km · 1 place
What to see in Aspa 5.1 km · 2 places
What to see in Sudanell 6 km · 1 place
What to see in Albatàrrec 6 km · 2 places
What to see in Artesa de Lleida 7.7 km · 1 place
What to see in el Cogul 8.4 km · 7 places

Spain › Catalonia › Lleida › Segrià › Alfés

What to see and do in Alfés

Alfés
Village
Alfés is a municipality in the Segrià, in the province of Lleida, with a fortified vila closa known as la Vileta and the castle of Vinfaro, near cave paintings on the river Set. The Abrigo de Alfés (Alfés rock shelter), discovered in 1972, preserves a group of painted goats bearing witness to the Epipalaeolithic hunters of Levantine art, and forms part, together with other sites in Lleida, of the group declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998 as Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The origin of the settlement is Saracen, as indicated by its place name and archaeological finds; the first documentary record dates from 1197. In la Vileta the walled medieval structure is preserved, with the remains of a gate, and the Romanesque church of Saint Peter, rebuilt in the 1980s after the civil war.
Fortified Walled Village of Alfés
Monument
La vila closa fortificada d'Alfés is the historic ensemble of Alfés (Segrià), declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). The area around the Vileta, the old core of the village, preserves the character of a walled town once protected by gateways; despite many alterations over time, some walls, the church (of Romanesque origin) and several manor houses still survive. The castle of Afesta, identified with that of Alfés, is already documented in 1120; according to the hearth-tax census (fogatge) of 1365-1370 the place belonged to Joan de Barriac, a citizen of Lleida, and later passed to the church of Lleida, under whose authority it remained until the disentailment.
Castle of Vinfaro
Monument
The castle of Vinfaro stands at the eastern end of the tossal (hill) of the same name, opposite Alfés, on the other side of the river Set. Documented since 1148, when Count Ramon Berenguer IV granted it to Arnau de Montpaó, it passed through several families of Lleida until, in the early 17th century, it came into the hands of the Riquer family, marquises of Benavent; at that time it had barely two houses, and after the War of the Spanish Succession it was left depopulated with only a single masía (farmhouse). Of the enclosure, separated from the rest of the hill by a moat 12 m wide and 3 m deep, stretches of wall survive, along with the remains of a rectangular fortification and the vestiges of a possible cistern; the oldest section, from the 12th century, may have been a tower of Islamic origin reused after the Christian conquest.
Dry Farmlands of the Segrià
Nature
The secans (dry farmland) of Alfés are a pseudo-desert steppe landscape forming part of the Secans de Mas de Melons-Alfés protected natural area, between the comarques of Les Garrigues and the Segrià, declared a Special Protection Area for birds (ZEPA) in 1987 and included in the Natura 2000 network as a partial nature reserve. The landscape combines large expanses of rain-fed herbaceous crops with rosemary and broom scrubland in its eastern half. It is a habitat for steppe birds uncommon in Catalonia, among them the great bustard, the calandra lark and the stone-curlew; it holds the only breeding population of Iberian grey shrike (trenca) in the whole of Catalonia and Spain, and receives between 50 and 60 pairs of pin-tailed sandgrouse every winter.
Rock Art of the Set River
Curiosity
The site, known as l'Abric d'Alfés, was discovered around 1972 by Adolf Costafreda and the La Femosa research group. The paintings depict a group of male goats and date from the Epipalaeolithic, between 10,000 and 6,500 years ago. They belong to Levantine rock art, characteristic of hunter-gatherer groups of the Mediterranean arc, and form part of the ensemble declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1998 under the heading Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Despite this, most of the rock shelters catalogued in the lands of Lleida lack any form of effective protection, leaving this fragile heritage at risk.