Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Llorac

What to see and do in Llorac (Conca de Barberà, Tarragona): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 5 Monuments

How far each place is from the centre of Llorac

Towns near Llorac

Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Conca de Barberà › Llorac

What to see and do in Llorac

Llorac
Village
Llorac is a municipality located at the northern edge of the Conca de Barberà comarca, in the natural comarca of Baixa Segarra, with five castles recorded within its municipal area. The village of Llorac sits beside the Corb river, at the foot of a small hill; its church, of Romanesque origin and dedicated to Sant Joan, was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century. It was the centre of the barony of Llorac: the castle, which bears the Alenyà coat of arms carved in stone, belonged successively to the Knights Hospitaller, the Alenyà, the Guimerà and the Claresvalls families, until in 1736 it passed into the hands of a peasant farmer from Santa Coloma de Queralt. The municipality also includes the hamlets of Rauric, La Cirera and Albió, and the depopulated site of Montargull.
Castle of Llorac
Monument
Termenat castle that gives its name to the municipality of Llorac, in the Conca de Barberà, situated at 680 metres above sea level and declared a National Cultural Asset. It is a casa forta, more a residential-type fortification than a castle proper, dated to around the 12th-13th centuries, when it was governed by Guifré Bonfill; in 1140 it passed to the Order of the Hospital, and in the 14th century to the crown, which sold it in 1342 to Francesc Alenyà. From the 16th century the lordship was held by the Guimerà family until the end of the old regime. Of the original construction only the north façade and part of the east and west façades survive; the south façade has been rebuilt.
Castle of Rauric
Monument
Of Rauric Castle, which stood atop the hill where the village of the same name sits, at the southeastern end of the municipality of Llorac, only a few vestiges of its foundations remain today; it is declared a National Cultural Asset. The first documentary record dates from the 12th century, when in 1167 Pere de Queralt bequeathed his “Kastellum de Roderico” to the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. Toward the end of that century the Rauric lineage is documented, and in 1369-70 the place was in the hands of Dalmau de Queralt, lord of Santa Coloma, a family that kept its hold over Rauric until the extinction of the lordships.
Castle of Montargull
Monument
Of Montargull Castle only the foundations and collapsed walls remain, on the summit of the sierra of the same name, at 843 metres above sea level, above the now-abandoned settlement called Montargull, in the municipality of Llorac. In the 10th century the place belonged to the Queralt family, and between the 12th and 13th centuries it passed into the hands of the Order of the Temple, which in 1256 received ratification of the castle's donation. After the extinction of the Templars, the successor to the barony of Santa Coloma, Pere de Queralt i d'Anglesola, bought the territory, the village and the castle, and the Queralt family kept jurisdiction until the extinction of the lordships. In 1379 the settlement had ten families, and by the mid-19th century some sixty residents still lived there.
Castle of Albió
Monument
Albió Castle stood on the highest hill of the village of Albió, at the western end of the municipality of Llorac; today only a few remains survive, since in 1602 a prioral visitation by the Hospitallers already described it as ruined, and a few decades ago even the base of a square tower disappeared when a television repeater was installed there. The first documentary record is from 1075. Between the 12th and 13th centuries it became part of the possessions that the Templar commandery of Barberà held in the Corb valley, administered from Vallfogona, until in 1250 the Templars completed their acquisition by buying the remaining share from the monastery of Vallbona de les Monges. After the Temple was dissolved in 1317, it passed to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, which kept its lordship until the end of the old regime.
Castle of la Cirera
Monument
The name Castell de la Cirera designates the hamlet of the same name in the municipality of Llorac, declared a cultural asset of national interest, although no trace remains of the old castle, documented since the 12th century: at the highest point of the small village stands today a large modern casal known as the castle. The first documentary reference dates from 1174, when Pere de Colomers made a definition of the lands he held in Albió under the lordship of Berenguer de Montargull, commander of Barberà; in 1242 King Peter the Ceremonious sold it to Francesc Alenyà together with Llorac Castle, and at the start of the 17th century it belonged to Dalmau Ivorra, within the viguerie of Montblanc.