Village
Valls is the capital of Alt Camp, in Tarragona, beside the Francolí river, with 25,518 inhabitants, more than half the comarca's population. It is the birthplace of the castells (human towers), with its two founding colles, la Vella and the Joves Xiquets de Valls, and of the calçotada, centred on the calçot, the sweet, elongated onion typical of the city. It was born in the first half of the 12th century, after the defeat of the Saracens of Siurana; its parish church of San Juan is documented since 1194, and in 1229 Ordinacions Municipals were drawn up, among the oldest in Catalonia. In 1410 Saint Vincent Ferrer preached in Valls and the city received Pope Benedict XIII of Avignon. The current church of Sant Joan, Romanesque-Gothic, was built between 1569 and 1583.
Monument
The Capella del Roser, in the old town of Valls (Alt Camp, Tarragona), declared a cultural asset of national interest, has a single nave with four bays and a barrel vault with lunettes; inside are paintings by Anton Català Gomis and sculptures by the local artist Josep Busquets i Òdena, and on the side walls, glazed tile panels from the early 17th century, one of the most important ceramic ensembles of the period. The Renaissance façade, between party walls, has the stone portal below and a niche with the Virgin of the Roser above. It was built from 1588, commissioned by the Confraternity of the Roser from the master builder Jaume Solsona; the present structure dates from 1634, the year the tiles were placed commemorating the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto (1571).
Monument
The Muralla de Valls is the walled enclosure that surrounded the original core of the vila, in Alt Camp (Tarragona), built in the 14th century by order of the archbishop of Tarragona and rebuilt in 1314. It had several gates opened between the 1370s and 1380s, among them the Portal de Sant Antoni (1380), the Portal Nou (1374) and the Portal del Carme (1371). Today only a fragment survives, on carrer del Mur, corresponding to the former inner wall-walk, built of small dressed stone and mortar, with an irregular bond. It is declared a cultural asset of national interest (code BCIN 4141-MH).
Monument
The main church of Valls, starting point of the Festa Major de Sant Joan, built where the parish of Sant Joan la Major once stood, whose first documentary mention dates from 1192. With a single nave of eight bays and seven chapels on each side, it measures 63 metres long and 16 wide, with a bell tower over seventy metres high built of white stone from Roda de Berà. The plain main façade opens with a large Gothic rose window with a polylobed central oculus bearing the coat of arms of Valls, and the interior preserves Gothic stained glass, ribbed vaults with historiated keystones and works by the Valls-born sculptor Lluís Bonifàs i Massó, among them the baroque image of the Mare de Déu de la Solitud, from 1755, and the group of the Verge de la Pietat and the Crist difunt, carved between 1776 and 1781.
Activity
The Festa Major de Sant Joan Baptista de Valls opens the calendar of summer patronal festivals in Camp de Tarragona and coincides with the summer solstice. It preserves elements of deep-rooted tradition, such as the Completes and the sound of the sonadors, and it is also the festival that opens the human-tower (castellera) season in Catalonia, with the rivalry between the colles Vella and Joves Xiquets de Valls in an urban setting considered the kilometre zero of the castellera world. It is celebrated with bonfires on the Nit de Sant Joan and with boladís, a drink of anise and cold water descended from bolado, an artisanal sweet documented since 1745 that the French writer Alexandre Dumas praised in 1846, during his journey across the peninsula, for its ability to make water sweet, cool and fragrant.
Activity
The Gran Festa de la Calçotada de Valls, capital of Alt Camp, is held on the last Sunday of January and is one of Catalonia's most crowded gastronomic festivals, with more than 35,000 visitors in a single day taking part in the popular calçot tasting spread through the Old Quarter. Valls, the birthplace of this product, has cultivated the calçotaire tradition since the late 19th century, and the Gran Festa took shape in 1892 with the involvement of associations, restaurants and shopkeepers of the town; by the mid-20th century it became known thanks to the celebrated calçotades of the Penya Artística de l'Olla. During the day there are contests for growers, for the calçotada sauce and for eating calçots, in which in 2023 the winner ate more than 220 calçots.
Curiosity
The calçotada is a popular meal typical of Catalonia whose origin is attributed to Valls, in the Tarragona comarca of Alt Camp, in the late 19th century, although its communal nature has made it spread today across the whole autonomous community. It is celebrated mainly between mid-January and April, coinciding with the harvest of the calçot, its main ingredient. The calçots are grilled whole over flames of vine cuttings; once cooked, the outer layer is charred and the inside tender, and they are wrapped in newspaper to keep the heat in until served, usually on a ceramic tile. The embers are then used to grill lamb and butifarra as a second course. Calçots are eaten with the hands, dipped in salvitxada, a sauce similar to romesco.
Historical milestone
On 25 February 1809 the French troops of General Saint-Cyr defeated beside the Francolí the army of General Reding, who was mortally wounded. The defeat opened to the French the road towards the Camp de Tarragona.
Historical milestone
The Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls, with a pink shirt, is one of the city's two historic castells teams (colles castelleres); its origins go back to 1791, already in the 18th century, when during the Decennial Festivals peasants from Valls and Alcover raised several pillars in honour of the Virgin of the Candelaria, the first documented castells performance in the town. That crew, conservative in outlook, became after the Third Carlist War the present-day Colla Vella, refounded under its definitive name in 1947. It belongs to the select group of eight colles that have achieved extra-range castells, and in 2016 it completed the 4 de 10 amb folre i manilles, the largest human tower ever built. The tradition, an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2010, derives from the old ball de valencians.
Historical milestone
Novelist and lawyer born in Valls on 10 August 1846 and died in Barcelona on 26 July 1930, who introduced realism and naturalism into Catalan literature, though he eventually adapted to modernism, with works such as La papallona, La febre d'or and Vilaniu, the last of these inspired by his home town and by Valls society in the 19th century. Orphaned of his father at the age of two, he was raised in the Moragas family home in Valls, in a well-off, liberal environment, and studied law in Barcelona, graduating in 1871 to work as a civil servant and court attorney. Around 1877 he decided to write in Catalan, encouraged by the Jocs Florals and the gatherings of La Renaixença; his friends Josep Yxart, his cousin, and Joan Sardà steered him towards realism and naturalism after he discovered Zola.
Historical milestone
Jaume Huguet was born in Valls around 1412 and died in Barcelona in 1492; he was the most outstanding Catalan Gothic painter of the second half of the 15th century, with a style that evolved International Gothic towards Flemish painting; he trained between Valencia, Tarragona and Barcelona. From 1448 he worked in Barcelona, where he set up a workshop that, after the deaths of Bernat Martorell and Lluís Dalmau, came to monopolise almost all Catalan altarpiece production, with members of the Vergós family among his collaborators. Much of his work was lost in uprisings that destroyed the churches that housed it; what survives are mostly dismantled panels, such as those of Sant Abdó i Sant Senén de Terrassa and of Sant Agustí. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya holds his most important collection, with around 25 works.
Food and drink
A tender shoot of white onion replanted and earthed up with soil, protected by a geographical indication created on 31 March 1995 by the Generalitat's Department of Agriculture, whose production area extends across the comarcas of Alt Camp, Baix Camp, Tarragonès and Baix Penedès. It is grilled over vine shoots, peeled by hand and eaten dipped in sauce between January and March. Its discovery is attributed to Xat de Benaiges, a peasant from Valls who at the end of the 19th century put some sprouted onions on the embers; from 1946 the artistic society L'Olla spread the custom beyond the comarca. Every last Sunday of January, Valls celebrates the calçotada, with competitions for growers, for sauce and for calçot eaters.
Food and drink
Calçot sauce, also called salvitxada or salbitxada, is a sauce typical of Valls (Alt Camp, Tarragona) that traditionally accompanies calçots at calçotadas. Thick, made from toasted almonds and hazelnuts, roasted tomato and garlic, ñora pepper, oil, vinegar and bread, it is pounded in a mortar until it reaches a medium consistency. Its origin, like that of the calçot itself, is attributed to the Valls peasant Xat Benaiges at the end of the 19th century, and it became popular in the 20th century thanks to Josep Gatell Busquets, known as el Bou. It is considered a variety of romesco sauce, with more roasted tomato and less nuts and ñora pepper, which gives it a milder taste; it differs from xató, which contains vinegar and is used to dress the curly endive salad with cod and anchovies.
Food and drink
Firagost is the agricultural fair of Valls, held on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of August, with a display of seasonal produce, machinery and farm products from the Camp de Tarragona; it is one of the oldest and most popular agricultural events in the comarca. The festival closes with the Firagost castells gathering, in the Plaça del Blat, the kilometre zero of the castells world, on the first Wednesday of August: the two Valls colles have performed there since 1956, and since the early 1980s the gathering has gained greater importance. It has seen extra-range castells, such as the 3 de 8 aixecat per baix or the 2 de 9 amb folre i manilles; the best performance was that of the Colla Vella in 2016, with the 4 de 9 amb folre i pilar, the 3 de 10 amb folre i manilles and the 5 de 9 amb folre.