Village
Olius is a municipality in the centre of the Solsonès, in the province of Lleida, on the banks of the Cardener river, whose territory surrounds Solsona to the south, east and west, with 990 inhabitants. Its emblematic feature is the summit of the Castellvell, referring to the old Castellvell de Solsona, and the land also preserves several fortified farmhouses. The most notable building is the Romanesque church of Sant Esteve, one of the main monuments of Lombard architecture from the late 11th century, consecrated in 1079 with two altars, one upstairs dedicated to Sant Esteve and another in the crypt, to the Holy Sepulchre and to Santa María. The village also preserves an Iberian settlement and the modernist cemetery of Olius, the work of the architect Bernardí Martorell.
Monument
A church built in the second half of the 11th century and consecrated in 1079, with a three-nave crypt that is its most notable feature; the parish is already documented in 985, when the castle and the church belonged to the count of Urgell. The crypt, similar to those of Cardona and Vic, has three naves 3.20 metres high separated by six columns with unequal capitals and covered with groin vaults, lit by three windows opened in the lower part of the apse. The single nave, with a barrel vault, is covered on the outside with Lombard-type arcading and pilaster strips on the apse. Beside the church is a Modernista cemetery with a Gaudí-like air, built in 1916 on large rocks by Bernardí Martorell, a disciple of Antoni Gaudí.
Monument
A castle begun in 957 by order of Count Sunyer of Urgell and strengthened in 973 by Borrell II; transformed in Gothic style in the 14th century, in 1872 the Carlists tore down three of its four towers. It is today inhabited and in good condition. It stands atop a hill 838 metres high, 130 metres above Solsona, and forms a first-rate viewpoint over the city and much of the comarca. In the 11th century the then lord of Solsona, Ecard Miró, began new fortification works that his descendants continued until 1217. Outside the enclosure survive remains of the Romanesque church of Sant Miquel de Castellvell, and a Romanesque capital on the wall shows the coats of arms of the Tarroja and Cardona families, also present on the coat of arms of Solsona.
Monument
Rectangular farmhouse with outbuildings, built next to an old 1078 defense tower, with a large round-arched portal with wide voussoirs on the south façade and Gothic windows on the north and west faces. Twelfth-century towers like this one were not slender watchtowers but military structures along royal roads that from that century became owners' residences. A Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's top heritage-protection category).
Monument
A historic farmhouse also known as Vilaró Vell or d'Anseresa, at the southwestern end of the municipal term of Olius, on the boundary with Pinell de Solsonès, listed as a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). It is a large fortified farmhouse, rectangular in plan and oriented north to south, with ground floor, upper floor and attic; it preserves the semicircular-arched doorway with large voussoirs and the arch giving access to the threshing floor beside the main door. The earliest documents of the site, then called els Anseresa, date from the 11th century; it took the name Vilaró Vell in the 12th century, when Pere de Vilaró and his wife Bernarda took possession of the mas, around 1163. In the 14th century, a family member, Ponç de Vilaró, rose to become bishop of Vic. It forms part of the comarca's vernacular architectural heritage.
Monument
La Torreta, or Castell d'Olius, is a monument protected as a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), set on a crag in the northeast of the municipality of Olius, in the upper basin of the river Cardener; beside it stand the Romanesque church of Sant Esteve and Olius's distinctive Modernista cemetery. It is a fortified farmhouse, rectangular in plan and built against the rock, with a tower about ten metres high datable to around the 13th century, enlarged in the Gothic period and again in the early modern era; it preserves a vaulted room with walls more than 72 centimetres thick. The site is documented since 985, when the counts of Urgell had a palace there, and in 1128 Count Ermengol VI donated it to the canonry of Solsona, whose bishops were from then on marquises of Olius.
Activity
The Festa Major of Olius, centered on the Romanesque church of Sant Esteve, is celebrated on the Sunday following the feast day of Sant Esteve (in 2024, on 3 and 4 August); the settlement of el Pi de Sant Just, within the municipality, celebrates its own on 2 August.
Nature
The Cardener, on its course through the Solsonès, crosses the municipal territory of Olius over 7 kilometres, 8% of its total course of 87 kilometres; the river rises at about 1,100 metres of altitude and is part of the Llobregat basin. On this stretch it receives tributaries such as the Rasa de Meix, the Rasa de Sant Joan, the Rasa de Sociats, the Ribera del Llissó, the Torrent de l'Alguer and the Rasa de Cal Cases, and feeds the Sant Ponç reservoir, between Olius and Clariana de Cardener, designed in 1921 and today used for water sports.
Historical milestone
The cemetery of Olius, in the Solsonès, was built in 1916 making use of large rocks in which the graves were carved directly, to a design by the architect Bernadí Martorell, who got the idea on seeing these rocks from the plain facing the church of Sant Esteve while taking measurements for the commission. The façade, of dressed stone, forms a pointed arch topped by a stone cross, with a wrought-iron door; inside there is a small chapel, also of dressed stone, and, scattered around the grounds, crosses and sculptures in the purest Gaudí style. It is protected and listed within the Catalan Architectural Heritage, and is accessed from kilometre point 109.7 of the C-26 road, between Solsona and Berga.