Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Vallbona de les Monges

What to see and do in Vallbona de les Monges (Urgell, Lleida): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Activities · 2 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Vallbona de les Monges

Castle of Montesquiu (Vallbona) 3.3 km
Castle of Rocallaura 5.3 km

Towns near Vallbona de les Monges

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Spain › Catalonia › Lleida › Urgell › Vallbona de les Monges

What to see and do in Vallbona de les Monges

Vallbona de les Monges
Village
Vallbona de les Monges is a town in Urgell, in Lleida, with 223 inhabitants, situated at the foot of the Sierra del Tallat, in the valley of the River Maldanell. It is home to the women's Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona, founded in the 12th century by the hermit Sant Ramon and the most important of its kind in Catalonia, which together with those of Poblet and Santes Creus forms the Cistercian Route. The village arose from a donation of land around the monastery made by the abbess Estefania de Piquer to evade the agreements of the Council of Trent, which forbade women's monasteries outside city walls; the first mayor was appointed in 1573. The municipality also includes the settlements of Rocallaura and Montblanquet, and its economy remains tied to oil and wine.
Monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona
Monument
One of the three great Cistercian monasteries of Catalonia, together with Poblet and Santes Creus, inhabited by nuns since the 12th century. It arose from a community of anchoresses founded in 1153 by Ramon de Vallbona under the Rule of St Benedict, which in 1175 adopted Cistercian observance; its first abbess, Oria Ramírez, came from the Navarrese monastery of Tulebras. Built between the 12th and 14th centuries, it combines the Romanesque style with a Gothic section, and was declared a Monumento Nacional (Spain's former top heritage protection status, precursor of today's BIC) in 1931. It soon attracted ladies of the Catalan nobility and received the favour of the Crown, with visits from Alfonso II the Chaste and James I the Conqueror, who sponsored its construction. It came to house up to 150 nuns and gave rise to the barony of Vallbona.
Castle of Montesquiu (Vallbona)
Monument
Remains of the castle of Montesquiu, in the term of Vallbona de les Monges, located on a hill about three kilometres from the town, in the direction of Rocallaura, today covered in pine woods and scrub, among which fragments of stone walls emerge, one of them with a walled-up arcade. Originally known as the castle of Colobrer, in 1164 it came under the guardianship of the monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona, and in 1219 Dolça de Passanant granted it, with its jurisdiction, to the abbess Ermessenda de Vallbona. In the 16th century, the inhabitants of Montesquiu resettled the new town of Vallbona and the site was left depopulated; between the late 18th century and 1850, during the construction of the new parish church of Vallbona, the ruins of the castle and the old church of Montesquiu were used as a quarry.
Castle of Rocallaura
Monument
Remains of the castle of Rocallaura, in the term of Vallbona de les Monges, of which no trace survives today. Rocallaura is a village situated at 649 metres above sea level, at the top of a hill at the foot of the Riera de Maldanell stream, north of the Serra del Tallat, near the boundary with the Conca de Barberà; it belonged to the abbesses of Santa Maria de Vallbona and had its own town council between the 1920s and the 1970s, when it was reintegrated into Vallbona de les Monges. The sanctuary of El Tallat is dependent on the village church, dedicated to Sant Llorenç.
Vallbona de les Monges Main Festival
Activity
The Festa Major of Vallbona de les Monges, in honor of the patron saints Sant Cosme i Sant Damià, is celebrated on the third weekend of September (in 2025, from the 19th to the 21st), with a mass in the church of the Cistercian monastery, sardana dancing and popular events.
Tomb of Violant d'Hongria
Historical milestone
Yolanda of Hungary, a princess of the Hungarian royal house born around 1216 in Esztergom, married Jaume I the Conqueror in 1235 in Barcelona Cathedral, of whom she was the second wife and one of his most influential advisors: she took part in agreements such as the Treaty of Almirra with Castile and in the capitulations for the surrender of Valencia, a city she entered triumphantly alongside the king in 1238. Among the nine or ten children the couple had, Pedro the Great, future king of Aragon, and Jaime II, future king of Mallorca, stand out. Yolanda died in Huesca on 12 October 1251 and chose as her burial place the Cistercian monastery of Vallbona, where she was buried that same year alongside her daughter, the infanta Yolanda of Aragon.
The village born from the Council of Trent
Historical milestone
A decree deriving from the Council of Trent prohibited in 1573 isolated female monasteries. To comply with it, it was ordered that a settlement be formed around the monastery, and from that obligation was born the villa that today surrounds it.