Village
Montblanc is the capital of the Conca de Barberà comarca, in the province of Tarragona, with 7,542 inhabitants (INE 2025), situated at the centre of the depression formed by the Anguera and Francolí rivers, at the foot of the Pla de Santa Bàrbara. Its name comes from this hillock, considered not very fertile ('blanch' in medieval Catalan) for cultivation. Paleolithic paintings have been found in caves within its municipal area, and between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC there was an Iberian settlement of the Cossetani tribe on the Pla de Santa Bàrbara, in addition to Roman remains from the beginning of our era. Capital of the Conca de Barberà, it is a medieval walled town linked to the legend of Saint George, which holds the title of ducal town and whose old quarter is declared a historic-artistic site.
Monument
Gothic building in the walled old town of Montblanc, on Carrer Josa, dating from the 13th century and housing since 1958 the seat of the Museu-Arxiu de Montblanc i Comarca. It has a ground floor, an upper floor and an attic; the recent restoration brought to light elements from the 13th century, although it was heavily remodelled in the 18th century, as shown by the main façade, with its voussoired doorway, wrought-iron balconies and the date 1738. Its original purpose is unknown, though it is assumed to have been linked to the ecclesiastical curia; at the end of the 18th century it belonged to the noble Montblanc family of the Josa, and was later known as Cal Portuguès, the ancestral home of the Alfonso Andreu family, who donated it to become a museum. It was declared a cultural asset of national interest in 1985.
Monument
The Palau del Castlà is a late Gothic palace in Montblanc (Conca de Barberà), declared a cultural asset of national interest. It stands in Plaça de Sant Miquel and is notable for its façade with a large voussoired doorway, Renaissance windows and stone gargoyles. It was built as the residence of the castlà, the king's representative in the town, when the town walls were completed, between the 14th and 15th centuries; the building, of ashlar with rounded corners, has a cubic plan and three floors. Originally it was a freestanding building, with a porticoed courtyard, a noble staircase and a garden reaching to the walled precinct. On the ground floor the town's prisons were installed, following the fires and assaults suffered during the Peninsular War and the Carlist Wars.
Monument
The ruins of Prenafeta Castle crown a hill above the village of the same name, a hamlet attached to the municipality of Montblanc. They consist of two constructions from different periods: a small rock castle of trapezoidal plan built around the 12th century, of which barely any walls remain standing, and the remains of a fortified house from the 13th or 14th century, a large part of which collapsed in 2006. The territory is documented from the year 980 and the castle from 1072, when it was granted in fief to Ramon Bremon; by inheritance it passed to the Puigvert family, and in 1276 it came into the possession of the monastery of Poblet. The village was left practically depopulated during the Catalan civil war against John II (1462-1472) and was abandoned in the 18th century, when it was rebuilt two kilometres to the south, at its current location.
Monument
Church of Santa Maria la Major of Montblanc, a great 14th-century Gothic temple known as the cathedral of the mountain, declared a cultural asset of national interest, set on a promontory from which it overlooks the old town of this ducal town, capital of the comarca of the Conca de Barberà. With a single nave eighteen metres wide, with side chapels between buttresses and a pentagonal apse, it is covered by a ribbed vault and has a large rose window in the central chapel of the apse. The main portal, from 1590, presents a Renaissance retable façade with two superimposed orders and an apostolate, the work of the Tortosa sculptor Agustí Pujol; the access square is paved with pebbles depicting the town's coat of arms and the date 1786.
Monument
Walled old town of Montblanc, whose precinct was built from 1366 under the reign of Peter the Ceremonious. The wall, of stone, mortar and, in some stretches, rammed earth, traces a perimeter of about 1,500 metres that surrounds the entire core of the old settlement and preserves five main gates (Sant Francesc, Sant Jordi, Sant Antoni, Bové and Castlà), two smaller posterns (Sant Marçal and Foradot) and 28 towers. The ensemble, with numerous medieval buildings from the 13th and 14th centuries, was declared a Monumental and Artistic Ensemble in 1947.
Monument
The walled precinct of Montblanc (Conca de Barberà) brings together the set of towers, gates and walls that surround the town's historic centre, the setting of the legend of Saint George and declared a cultural asset of national interest. It has a polygonal circuit of 1,500 metres, formed by a crenellated wall 1.5 metres thick and about 6 metres high, with 31 also crenellated towers between 16 and 20 metres tall, run through on the inside by a wall-walk. It had four gates linked to the main access roads to Montblanc – Sant Antoni, Sant Francesc, Sant Jordi and Bover – to which the Barcelona gate was later added. Today some twenty-five towers survive, although the original number, traditionally put at thirty-four, remains a subject of study.
Monument
Old flour mills of Montblanc, next to the confluence of the Francolí and Anguera rivers, in a spot known as Vila-salva, documented since 1155. Two are preserved: the Molí Gran or de la Volta, rectangular in plan with four hydraulic-system mills under a vault of dressed stone, and the Molí Xic, next to the Anguera river, badly damaged by floods. They were common property from the 13th century until the Reapers' War, when they passed to the Community of Priests, and operated partially until a flood ruined them for good in 1848. Since 1994 they have formed part of the Regional Museum of the Conca de Barberà.
Monument
Former conventual church of Montblanc, capital of the comarca of the Conca de Barberà, in the province of Tarragona. The old town, built next to the confluence of the Francolí and Anguera rivers at the foot of the Pla de Santa Bàrbara, is declared a historic-artistic ensemble.
Activity
The Setmana Medieval de Montblanc re-enacts, between 22 April and 1 May, the legend of Sant Jordi which, according to Joan Amades's Costumari Català, is said to have taken place in this town in the Conca de Barberà. It began in 1987, when a group of young people organised the first performance of the legend in the main square; that same year the Associació Medieval de la Llegenda de Sant Jordi was formed. Over the fifteen days of the festival there are, in succession, a medieval market and craft fair —the most crowded of the events, and the first of its kind in Catalonia—, taverns, trials and tournaments, and the theatrical performance of the Llegenda de Sant Jordi, with lights, sound and special effects, making use of the town's walls. The Corts Catalanes of 1307 and 1414 are also re-enacted in the churches of Santa Maria and Sant Miquel.
Activity
The Festa Major de Montblanc, today dedicated to Sant Maties, is celebrated in mid-May (May 16-18); Sant Jordi was the town's original patron saint until in 1687 a popular vote replaced him with Sant Maties, regarded as the deliverer from a locust plague. The Setmana Medieval de Sant Jordi, which revives the saint's legend over two weekends in April, is a separate and more recent celebration.
Curiosity
Trepat, also called trepadell, is a red grape variety native to the Conca de Barberà, where it covers around 1,000 hectares. It buds early and ripens late, with large, compact bunches and berries with thin skin and sweet flavour; it withstands rot well but is sensitive to late frosts and needs cool soils owing to its low tolerance of drought. It is used to make fresh, light and fruity rosé wines of low alcohol content (10-11% vol.), and it is one of the two varieties authorised for making rosé cava. It is protected by the Conca de Barberà and Costers del Segre designations of origin.
Historical milestone
In February 1163 King Alfons the Chaste moved the settlement to a hill beside the Francolí and granted it a charter of settlement. The new villa grew quickly and in the fourteenth century came to be the seventh of Catalonia by number of inhabitants.
Historical milestone
The villa hosted sessions of the Catalan Corts in 1307, 1333, 1370, 1410 and 1414, which gives an idea of its political weight in the Crown of Aragon. The meetings were held in the church of Sant Miquel, still standing.
Historical milestone
The Duchy of Montblanc was a hereditary noble title created in 1387 by John I the Hunter, on acceding to the throne, for his brother the infante Martin, with the royal income from the town of Montblanc. The intention was to dignify him with a title lower than king but higher than the nobles; it was originally for life and was meant to revert to the crown, as happened when Martin became king in 1396. The next to grant it was Ferdinand of Antequera, in 1415; from 1461 it remained tied to the title of the heir to the Crown of Aragon, until the latter's abolition in 1715. Restored in 1977 for the then Prince Felipe of Bourbon, future Felipe VI, he visited Montblanc in 1996 and took up the title without an official ceremony. It still appears among the titles of the Spanish royal house.
Food and drink
The Conca de Barberà Denominación de Origen has regulated, since 1985, the wines of the basin of the Francolí river and its tributary the Anguera, in the Conca de Barberà comarca, whose capital is Montblanc. The area, protected by ranges such as the Prades mountains, has an average altitude of 500 metres, limestone soils and a climate between Mediterranean and dry, suited to dry, aromatic wines. The winemaking tradition, linked above all to Poblet Monastery, whose monks encouraged medieval cultivation, preserves a 13th-century Gothic cellar. After phylloxera a cooperative movement emerged, giving rise to Modernista cellars known as the cathedrals of wine. The native trepat variety produces a light rosé; the rest, mostly white, combines macabeo and parellada, while the reds use ull de llebre.