Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Ulldemolins

What to see and do in Ulldemolins (Priorat, Tarragona): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Ulldemolins

Church of Sant Jaume d'Ulldemolins 50 m
Castle of Ulldemolins 400 m

Towns near Ulldemolins

Spain › Catalonia › Tarragona › Priorat › Ulldemolins

What to see and do in Ulldemolins

Ulldemolins
Village
Ulldemolins is a town in the comarca of Priorat, in the province of Tarragona, situated at the foot of the Sierra de Montsant. In nearby caves, remains of a possible community of Visigothic hermits have been found, perhaps the origin of Escaladei and Bonrepòs. The castle of the municipal area is documented from 1151; in 1166 Alfonso the Chaste granted the charter of settlement and in 1324 the place passed to the county of Prades. The parish church of Sant Jaume, in Renaissance style with a Mudéjar bell tower from 1612, was built between 1594 and 1595 on top of an earlier Romanesque church. The area also preserves several hermitages, among them the Romanesque one of San Bartolomé, inhabited until 1851, and the neoclassical sanctuary of the Virgen de Loreto. The main festival is celebrated on the first Sunday after 8 September.
Church of Sant Jaume d'Ulldemolins
Monument
The church of Sant Jaume, in Ulldemolins (Priorat, Tarragona), declared an asset of national cultural interest, has a single nave with a flat chevet and a barrel vault with lunettes, flanked by four side chapels on each side with galleries on the upper floor. A triumphal arch, bearing the dates 1585, 1690, 1778, 1896 and 1972 — probably the completion of the presbytery and later restorations — separates the nave from the chevet. The façade, with rusticated ashlars at the corners, has at its centre a monumental Renaissance-style doorway crowned by a large triangular pediment, and to the left rises the bell tower, with a square base and an octagonal body finished in a circular section.
Castle of Ulldemolins
Monument
The castle of Ulldemolins, now vanished, stood on the site where the parish church of Sant Jaume now stands, built between 1584 and 1590. Although the fortress may already have existed before 1187 — the year in which Queen Sança granted Arnau Domènec the right to build a chapel there — the first charter of settlement of the place, then called Occulo de Molinis, was granted by King Alfonso I in 1166. In the 14th century the town passed to the county of Prades, and in the 15th it was equipped with a walled enclosure reinforced on account of the Catalan civil war (1462-1472). The castle was already practically in ruins when the new church was erected on its site; today it is recalled only by the name of a street in the village, the calle del Castillo.
Ulldemolins Main Festival
Activity
The Festa Major d'Ulldemolins is held at the foot of the Sierra de Montsant, whose crags, ravines and hermitages the Generalitat protected as a natural park in 2002.
Ulldemolins Winter Main Festival
Activity
Ulldemolins's Festa Major d'Hivern is held beside the church of Sant Jaume and the village's castle holding jurisdiction over its own term, at the foot of the Sierra de Montsant.
Declaration of the Serra de Montsant Natural Park
Historical milestone
In 2002 the Parlament de Catalunya protected as a natural park the conglomerate ridges, ravines and hermitages of the Sierra de Montsant: 11,755.82 hectares in the western sector of the Serralada Prelitoral, within the Priorat comarca, divided among the municipalities of la Morera de Montsant, Ulldemolins, Margalef, Cabassers, Cornudella de Montsant, la Vilella Alta, la Vilella Baixa, la Bisbal de Montsant and la Figuera. The designation regulated hiking and climbing, and curbed uses that threatened the massif, protecting its geological, biological, scenic and cultural values. The highest point is the Roca Corbatera, at 1163 metres.
Honey and herbs of the Montsant
Food and drink
The beekeepers of the sierra produce honeys of rosemary, thyme and mountain flowers in the ravines of the massif. The same aromatic plants are gathered for infusions and for the herbal liqueurs macerated in the households.