Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in el Pla de Santa Maria

What to see and do in el Pla de Santa Maria (Alt Camp, Tarragona): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of el Pla de Santa Maria

Church of Sant Ramon del Pla de Santa Maria 450 m

Towns near el Pla de Santa Maria

What to see in Figuerola del Camp 2.2 km · 5 places
What to see in Cabra del Camp 3.7 km · 3 places
What to see in el Pont d'Armentera 6.5 km · 3 places
What to see in Aiguamúrcia 6.9 km · 9 places
What to see in Barberà de la Conca 7.4 km · 7 places
What to see in Alió 7.7 km · 3 places
What to see in Vila-rodona 8.3 km · 6 places
What to see in Valls 9 km · 14 places

Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Alt Camp › el Pla de Santa Maria

What to see and do in el Pla de Santa Maria

El Pla de Santa Maria
Village
El Pla de Santa Maria, called Pla de Cabra until 1954, is a town in the comarca of Alt Camp located on flat land at the foot of the sierras of Miramar and el Cogulló, at the crossroads of the paths linking it to neighbouring villages. It preserves the fortified gateways of Carrer Major, part of the walled enclosure declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1988, and two churches recalled by its coat of arms with a pair of crosses: that of Sant Ramon, from the 13th century and also a Bien de Interés Cultural since 1951, and that of Santa Maria, from the 18th century, which gives the municipality its name. It has 2408 inhabitants.
Church of Sant Ramon del Pla de Santa Maria
Monument
The church of San Ramón, in Pla de Santa Maria (Alt Camp), has a single nave with a semicircular apse and a transept, with an octagonal lantern remodelled in the 18th century. Its stylistic features place its construction between the 12th and 13th centuries, when it was a fief of the See of Tarragona, granted in 1137 to Berenguer de Vilafranca; notable is its lateral Romanesque doorway, with eight columns on each side and a sculpted lintel depicting the Virgin, the Child, the Epiphany and the Annunciation. It was sacked and burned during the Reapers' War, and in the 18th century its demolition began, although in 1772 it was repaired and the lantern rebuilt. Damaged again during the Civil War, it was restored in 1987; it was first dedicated to Santa María and, since the early 20th century, to San Ramón de Penyafort.
Fortified Gates of Carrer Major
Monument
The fortified gateways of Carrer Major are the two arches that once closed off the vila of Pla de Santa Maria at the ends of its main street, and which the town preserves along with the urban fabric of the walled enclosure. The one at number 1 combines an outer segmental arch with the date 1670 carved into the central voussoir and an inner arch of Gothic type made of large regular ashlar blocks, indicating an origin considerably earlier than that date, with a later refurbishment; it probably corresponds to the old gate of Valls. The one at number 56 is a semicircular arch formed by twenty-one voussoirs arranged radially. Both now support residential buildings and have been restored while keeping the exposed stone.
El Pla de Santa Maria Main Festival
Activity
The patronal festival of Pla de Santa Maria is held in a town that preserves the fortified gates of Major Street and the church of Sant Ramon. Among its festive figures, the Capgrossos of Pla de Santa Maria stand out: five century-old pairs of papier-mâché big-heads representing the Catalan man and woman, the Valencian man and woman, the manyo and the manya (the Aragonese man and woman), Cu-cut and Patufet, and the Knight and the Lady; they were bought in 1920 from the El Ingenio workshop in Barcelona, the work of sculptor Eusebi Vidal i Cosp, and paid for by the Martí, Llopart i Trenchs textile mill with a contribution from its workers. They come out together with the giants at the Festa de les Neus, in a procession that precedes the Pedregada, when thousands of sweets are thrown from the balconies.
The Black Death and the depopulation of the region
Historical milestone
The epidemics begun in 1348 and the poor harvests reduced the population of the comarca to little more than two thousand inhabitants at the end of the fifteenth century. Several villages were left deserted and the recovery did not come until the eighteenth century.