Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in la Riba

What to see and do in la Riba (Alt Camp, Tarragona): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of la Riba

Tower of el Petrol 1.2 km

Towns near la Riba

What to see in Vilaverd 1.7 km · 2 places
What to see in Alcover 6.3 km · 7 places
What to see in Montblanc 6.5 km · 16 places
What to see in Valls 7 km · 14 places
What to see in Mont-ral 7.6 km · 3 places
What to see in el Milà 8.2 km · 3 places
What to see in Figuerola del Camp 9.3 km · 5 places
What to see in la Masó 10 km · 3 places

Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Alt Camp › la Riba

What to see and do in la Riba

La Riba
Village
La Riba is a small town in Alt Camp, in Tarragona, at the entrance to the Muntanyes de Prades, next to the Torre del Petrol, with 574 inhabitants (INE 2025) and very steep streets owing to its rugged terrain. It is crossed by the river Francolí, which here receives the waters of the Brugent. It received a charter of settlement in 1155 from Count Ramon Berenguer IV and belonged to the lands of the county of Prades. From the 18th century it was an important papermaking centre, with 42 paper mills between the village and the banks of the Brugent and Francolí. The oldest, that of Siurana (1721), that of Cal Camps (1758) and that of Cap de la Riba (1791), stood in a row along the steep street of Costa Alta. The paper industry remains its main economic activity.
Tower of el Petrol
Monument
Watchtower situated on the summit of Puigcabrer, in the Serra de Miramar, at 525 metres above sea level, in the municipality of la Riba, in Alt Camp, protected as a cultural asset of national interest. It is cylindrical in shape and built of stone; it was constructed in the 19th century, during the Third Carlist War, by order of Manuel Orozco, commander of la Riba, to fight the Carlists led by the Nen de Prades. The site, strategic for defending the pass between Camp de Tarragona and Conca de Barberà, had already hosted the old castle of la Riba, documented in 1176. By day it served as a watchtower and by night for optical signals. Its name, del Petrol, comes from Orozco's reputation as a drinker, who would ask for petroli when asking for spirits; a lightning bolt split it during the Carlist war.
La Riba Main Festival
Activity
The fiesta mayor of la Riba is celebrated in a town where the waterfall of the Brugent powered, from the 18th century, a cluster of paper mills that supplied cigarette and shaving paper to much of Catalonia well into the 20th century; the floods of 1792 and 1874 destroyed several mills there and caused fatalities.
Paper mills of the Brugent
Historical milestone
The waterfall of the Brugent drove from the eighteenth century a concentration of paper mills that supplied cigarette and deckle-edged paper to half of Catalonia. The activity was maintained in factories of the locality until well into the twentieth century.
1874 flood on the Brugent and Francolí rivers
Historical milestone
The simultaneous flooding of the two rivers destroyed several paper mills and caused three deaths. A similar disaster, with nineteen victims, had occurred in 1792: floods are a recurrent risk at the confluence of the gorge.