Castell de Solivella: A Medieval Castle and Llorac Fortress in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Castell de Solivella is a historic castle in Spain, located in Solivella, Tarragona, and first documented in 1076. The later fortress was built in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in the Flamboyant Catalan Gothic style, with Renaissance elements, over an earlier medieval castle. Its long history reflects changing noble, monastic, royal, and municipal control.
Medieval ownership
The Solivella lineage appears in the records from 1204, when Pere d’Olivella, also known as Pere de Solivella, witnessed Guillem de Puigverd’s transfer to Poblet Monastery. Ponç de Solivella later acted as executor of Pere de Queralt’s will. During the thirteenth century, the castle and settlement belonged to the Puigverd family before passing to the Anglesola family through the marriage of Elvira de Puigverd to Berenguer Arnau d’Anglesola.
At the start of the fourteenth century, the executors of Ramon d’Anglesola sold the castle and settlement to Santes Creus for 50,000 sous. Ramon’s widow and children contested the transaction before Jaume II, a king of Aragon, and recovered the property after returning the monastery’s payment. In 1324, Ramon’s widow, Sibil·la d’Anglesola, sold the castle and settlement, with royal authorization, to Arnau Messeguer, a citizen of Barcelona.
The castle returned to the Crown in 1391. Two years later, Joan I, another king of Aragon, sold it under a right-of-redemption arrangement to Ramon de Abella. This type of sale transferred property while allowing its recovery under specified conditions. The transaction also included the high and low jurisdictions and merum et mixtum imperium, the lord’s authority over serious criminal cases and lower-level civil matters. In January 1394, Ramon de Abella transferred the property to Berenguer de Boixadors, who sold it to Alfons el Magnànim, or Alfonso the Magnanimous, in 1424.
The Llorac fortress
In 1424, Alfons el Magnànim resold Castell de Solivella under a right of redemption to Ramon Berenguer de Llorac, who was married to Violant, the castle’s castellan, the official responsible for administering and defending it. The Llorac family subsequently constructed a new fortress over the earlier castle. The building combined the elaborate late Gothic forms of Flamboyant Catalan Gothic with Renaissance features.
The fortress remained linked to the Llorac family until 1751, apart from temporary transfers to the Crown and other owners. In 1599, Felip III of Castile created the barony of Solivella for Simó Berenguer de Llorac i Castelló, granting him full civil and criminal jurisdiction. Disputes between the Llorac family and the inhabitants of Solivella led to the castle’s return to the Crown in 1729, although Joan de Llorac recovered it the following year.
From noble estate to destruction
In 1751, the castle passed to the Despujol family, Marquises of Palmerola, through the marriage of M. Josefa de Llorac to Francesc X. Despujol. During the First Carlist War, a nineteenth-century Spanish civil war fought partly over the succession to the throne, Carlist forces fortified themselves in the castle. It was restored after the conflict but sustained further damage during the Second Carlist War.
Ignasi Maria Despujol sold the castle in 1870 for 5,000 duros to the Solivella proprietors Francesc Casamitjana i Andreu and Tomàs Espanyol i Travé. In 1876, ownership belonged to Magí Travé i Ballart, who had been born in Solivella in 1829. In 1912, Frederic Travé i Escardó, his brother Enric Travé, and Frederic García Salas transferred the castle to the municipal government in exchange for naming two Solivella streets after their predecessors, Carrer Magí Travé and Carrer Garcia Salado. The complex remained severely damaged until 1915, when explosives destroyed it.
Castell de Solivella has been a Cultural Asset of National Interest and a Spanish cultural-interest monument under reference RI-51-0006729 since 1988. The surviving complex is integrated as a visitable historical space within the Conca de Barberà Regional Museum.
Remains
Castell de Solivella occupies the highest part of the town, at about 517 metres above sea level, and stands at Plaça del Castell. The site overlooks much of the municipality. Its remains combine elements of the earlier medieval castle with the fragmentary fabric of the later Llorac fortress, which had a rectangular plan enclosed by two circuits of walls.
Earlier medieval castle
Important parts of the earlier castle survived into the early twentieth century. At the northeastern extremity, the walls of an angle rise to approximately 10 metres. Several courses of ashlar masonry remain on the western side, while a late-medieval portal survives on the southern side together with other sections of the walls. These elements preserve traces of the earlier structure and its layout within the later complex.
Llorac fortress
Walls and towers
The Llorac fortress was a large building in Flamboyant Catalan Gothic architecture with Renaissance additions. Its rectangular enclosure was formed by a double circuit of walls. Towers with alternating circular and square plans strengthened the complex, and they included battlements, arrow slits, and machicolations. Arrow slits were narrow openings for firing weapons, while machicolations projected from the walls and had openings through which defenders could attack people below.
Courtyards and cistern
A central courtyard contained a staircase that led to the noble floor. The former courtyard of arms, the open military courtyard within the fortified complex, is almost completely ruined. An old cistern stands in its centre. The cistern was adapted as Solivella’s water reservoir and continues to serve that purpose. The surviving Gothic castle is represented chiefly by walls and traces of its former structure or arrangement.
