Village
Alcanar is a coastal town in southern Catalonia, in the Montsià county (Tarragona), the southernmost municipality in the region, on the border with the Valencian Community. It has 10,104 inhabitants (2025) and its municipal area stretches between the Montsià mountain range and the Mediterranean Sea, and includes the old fishing village of Las Casas de Alcanar. Its name probably comes from the Latin canabae. Although settled since ancient times, it did not attain the status of a town until the 15th century: it received a charter of settlement in 1239 and another in 1252, the date of its official founding, and became independent from Ulldecona in 1449. In the 14th century a watchtower was built against Saracen pirates, defences that today join the Iberian settlement of Moleta del Remei.
Monument
The Torre d'en Pasqualet, also known as Torre del Moro II, was built in the last quarter of the 16th century, when attacks by Turkish and Arab pirates on the coast intensified, as part of a set of fortified watchtowers in the municipality of Alcanar. It is a quadrangular ashlar stone tower, with the ground floor covered by a barrel vault, a door with a dressed-stone frame and a machicolation on corbels on the upper facade. The roof has been heavily altered to improve drainage, with the addition of a modern porch. It is declared a cultural asset of national interest, with code BCIN 462-MH.
Monument
The Torre de n'Urbano, also called Torre del Moro III, was built in the last quarter of the 16th century in the municipality of Alcanar, in the Codonyol area, near the present N-340 road, at about 93 metres altitude. It was part of the line of watchtowers known as the Torres del Moro, raised to defend and watch over the Alfacs coast against attacks by Turkish and Arab pirates. Square in plan, it has rubble-masonry walls up to the first floor and corners finished in dressed ashlar, with a semicircular vault inside. It is fairly deteriorated, with no remains of battlements at the top, and today is used only as a shelter. It is declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest.
Monument
Defence tower of Alcanar, located at the foot of the Montsià mountains, next to km 155.5 of the N-340, in the la Fonda area, on a promontory overlooking the coast, at the southern end of the fortified Alfacs line and about a hundred metres from the Torre d'en Calbo. The ground floor preserves the original barrel vault and the original entrance, on the seaward side, with a very wide lintel protected by a machicolation; on the south-west wall there are corbels from another, vanished machicolation. It was thoroughly rebuilt for use as a summer house: a wing was added to the north and the top was turned into a crenellated terrace, although it retains the original structure. It has been proposed to identify it with the tower of Puigmoltó (1390), not located today, or with the Torre Prima, known from old cartography.
Monument
The Torre d'en Calbo, also known as Torre d'en Gimeno, is located in the municipality of Alcanar, about a hundred metres north of the Torre d'en Morralla. It is part of the so-called Torres dels Alfacs, a group of fortifications that the city of Tortosa built in the last quarter of the 16th century to defend the coast against Turkish and Arab piracy. It is a tower with a quadrangular base to which wings were later attached on each side at ground level, so that the whole took on a basilica-like appearance with the tower at the centre; it lost its battlements and the walls were raised to build a pitched roof. It is entered through a lintelled door, above which is a machicolation resting on two corbels, and inside a rubble-masonry barrel vault is preserved.
Monument
Unlike the isolated towers of the coast, this one occupied a corner of the town wall which, documented in the 17th-18th centuries, enclosed about 150 houses of the village with four gateways. It is square in plan, with well-squared ashlars at the corners and only roughly dressed stone elsewhere, and it preserves arrow slits; it was topped with battlements and its upper part, used as a terrace, was reached from the neighbouring house. Its dating is disputed between the 14th-15th centuries and the 16th. The wall on carrer Nou collapsed on the night of 2 to 3 September 1981, and in 1983-84 the architect Alfred Pastor Mongrell drew up the restoration project, commissioned by the Generalitat de Catalunya, which joined its two interior spaces and adapted it as an exhibition hall.
Monument
Iberian settlement of the Ilercavones, continuously occupied between the 7th and 2nd centuries BC, oval in plan and walled, with towers, concentric streets and grain silos; it forms part of the Route of the Iberians. It stands in the municipality of Alcanar, in the Montsià mountains, at 208 metres altitude, near the mouth of the Ebro; it is reached from the hermitage of the Mare de Déu del Remei, at the foot of the hill. It was declared a historic-artistic monument in 1979. The first excavations, between 1961 and 1965, yielded mainly Greek and Etruscan pottery without clarifying its social organisation; between 1985 and 1995 the University of Barcelona systematised its chronology and culture, giving rise to the museum programme, open to visitors since 1998.
Nature
The Montsià mountains are a range parallel to the Mediterranean coast, south of the Terres de l'Ebre, which gives its name to the comarca and acts as a natural viewpoint over the Baix Ebre, the Montsià, the Baix Maestrat and els Ports. It stretches from the Ebro river in the north to the Sénia river in the south, about 12 kilometres, with a rugged terrain of escarpments and ravines. Its highest point is the Torreta del Montsià (764 m), although from Ulldecona the outline of la Mola looks like the highest summit; another peak, la Foradada, is a magnificent viewpoint over the Ebro delta. The massif, limestone with numerous caves, was formed 25 million years ago and is shared between Alcanar, Ulldecona, Freginals, Amposta and La Ràpita; from Alcanar, routes run to Sant Carles de la Ràpita through the Burgar woods.
Monument
The church of Alcanar is found in a village whose Christian resettlement was consolidated in 1252 with settlers arriving from various Catalan regions, in a district already occupied by Iberian settlements since the 7th century BC. It also preserves three coastal watchtowers, among them that of the carrer Nou, integrated into the old wall.
Nature
The beaches of Alcanar stretch alongside a district where the clementine, grown between autumn and winter, coexists with almond and olive trees in the rainfed and irrigated landscape of the southern tip of Catalonia.
Activity
Alcanar's Festa Major is held in a village whose Christian resettlement was consolidated in 1252, in a district already occupied by Iberian settlements since the 7th century BC.
Activity
Alcanar's Festa Major d'Hivern is held in a village whose Christian resettlement was consolidated in 1252, in a district already occupied by Iberian settlements since the 7th century BC.
Historical milestone
After several failed attempts at settlement, the Christian resettlement was consolidated in 1252 with colonists who came from different Catalan comarcas. The district, at the southern end of Catalonia, was already occupied by Iberian settlements from the seventh century BC.
Food and drink
The Alcanar clementine is the group of clementines produced in the area of influence of this municipality at the southern tip of Catalonia, in the Montsià, and that can be eaten at their best between November and February. It is covered by the Protected Geographical Indication “Clementines de les Terres de l'Ebre”, which brings together the clementines of the Baix Ebre and the Montsià. In recent years, the Fundació Alícia has been working with Alcanar Town Council to promote this product and its properties, with actions such as its presentation at Barcelona markets -the Boqueria, la Concepció and la Llibertat- and the publication of the recipe book “La Clementina d'Alcanar a la Cuina”. It grows alongside almond and olive trees in the dry and irrigated farmland landscape surrounding the town.