Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Vimbodí i Poblet

What to see and do in Vimbodí i Poblet (Conca de Barberà, Tarragona): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Activities · 2 Historical milestones · 2 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Vimbodí i Poblet

Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet 3.5 km

Towns near Vimbodí i Poblet

What to see in Tarrés 3.6 km · 3 places
What to see in l'Espluga de Francolí 4.4 km · 9 places
What to see in Vallclara 6.3 km · 2 places
What to see in Vinaixa 7 km · 10 places
What to see in Fulleda 7.4 km · 2 places
What to see in Senan 8.3 km · 2 places
What to see in el Vilosell 8.8 km · 4 places
What to see in l'Albi 9.7 km · 5 places

Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Conca de Barberà › Vimbodí i Poblet

What to see and do in Vimbodí i Poblet

Vimbodí i Poblet
Village
Vimbodí i Poblet is a municipality of the Conca de Barberà, in the province of Tarragona, which takes its name from the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet, a UNESCO World Heritage Site included within its territory. The town, mentioned since 1080, was ceded by Alfonso the Chaste to the neighbouring monastery, which definitively bought the land in 1410 for 2,000 gold florins; at the Molí del Salt archaeological remains 14,000 years old have been found. The economy combines vineyards and hazelnut groves with a glassmaking tradition: the factory closed in 1952, but a museum houses its pieces and master craftsman Paco Ramos continues to work the material in front of visitors. Two kilometres from the monastery stands the castle of Milmanda, a farm of Poblet until 1835. It has 887 inhabitants (INE 2025).
Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet
Monument
The Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Poblet, founded in 1150 by the Cistercian order, stands at the foot of the Prades mountains, in the Conca de Barberà, within the municipality of Vimbodí i Poblet. It is one of the most important monastic complexes in Europe and, in fact, the largest inhabited monastic complex on the continent. From the reign of Peter the Ceremonious, in the 14th and 15th centuries, it became the royal pantheon of the sovereigns of the Crown of Aragon, although it also holds the tombs of earlier monarchs and various noble lineages, which has made it a symbolic reference point of the Crown since the Middle Ages. In 1921, following a visit by King Alfonso XIII, it was declared Monumento Nacional (Spain's highest level of heritage protection at the time), and in 1991 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2005 it received the Creu de Sant Jordi.
Vimbodí i Poblet Main Festival
Activity
Vimbodí i Poblet, the municipality that hosts the Reial Monestir de Poblet (Royal Monastery of Poblet), celebrates its fiestas mayores on 17 January in honor of Sant Antoni Abat and on 6 August in honor of the Sant Salvador (Transfiguració del Senyor); on 8 September it also celebrates the Mare de Déu dels Torrents, and every five years (years ending in 4 and 9) it holds a Festa Quinquennal.
Founding of the Poblet monastery and the royal pantheon
Historical milestone
Poblet Monastery, at the foot of the Prades mountains, in the Conca de Barberà, is the largest inhabited monastic complex in Europe and one of the most important on the continent. Ramon Berenguer IV granted these lands in 1151 to Cistercian monks who had come from Fontfroide, who founded the monastery around 1150. Peter the Ceremonious later turned it, during the 14th and 15th centuries, into the pantheon of the kings of the Crown of Aragon, whose sepulchres are lined up above the transept arch, though it also holds the tombs of earlier monarchs and various noble lineages. It was declared Monumento Nacional (Spain's highest heritage protection designation at the time) in 1921, after a visit by Alfonso XIII, and a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1991.
Disentailment and restoration of Poblet
Historical milestone
The exclaustration of 1835 left the monastery abandoned and exposed to plunder, with the royal tombs desecrated. After a century of ruin and rescue work, in 1940 a Cistercian community settled there again and still inhabits it.
Mushrooms of the Poblet forest
Food and drink
The natural area that surrounds the monastery, with pine woods, oak groves and hazels, gives an autumn harvest of rovellons, rossinyols and horns of plenty. The season fills the paths with gatherers and the restaurant menus with mushrooms.
Vineyard and wine of the Poblet abbey
Food and drink
The Cistercian community recovered at the beginning of the twenty-first century the cultivation of the monastery's vineyards, from which wines of the Conca de Barberà designation are made. It continues an activity that the monks practised for centuries.