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The Little Tower of Olius

Olius, Solsonès, Lleida

1 Villages · 5 Monuments · 1 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

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The Little Tower of Olius

Monument · Olius, Solsonès, Lleida

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.

Photo: Cèsar August Torras i Ferreri (Public domain)

What to see and do in Olius