Castell de la Morana: A Castle-Palace in La Morana, Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
Castell de la Morana is a castle-palace in Spain, first recorded in the eleventh century as a possession of the County of Urgell. Its surviving complex is largely a post-medieval manor house incorporating earlier defensive fabric. The castle is recognized as a Cultural Asset of National Interest in Catalonia and is also registered as a Spanish cultural-interest monument.
Medieval lordship and ecclesiastical connections
The first written record of Morana dates to 1038. The executors of Count Ermengol II of Urgell, Arnau Miró, Countess Constança, and Bishop Eribau of Urgell, transferred their allodial properties at Guissona and Morana to the canonry of Santa Maria of La Seu. An allod was land held without a feudal lord, while a canonry was a religious institution whose canons served a cathedral or collegiate church.
In 1040, the castle appeared in the record of the second consecration of Santa Maria of La Seu under the name castellum Morane. The document identified it as a possession of the County of Urgell within the territory of Guissona Castle. On 15 September 1098, the consecration document for Santa Maria of Guissona described Morana as a parish incorporated into that church’s parish district. Its rights to tithes, death dues, and related matters were assigned to Santa Maria.
Later holders and transformation
The Sacirera family held lordship over Morana in the fourteenth century. By 1564, the castle belonged to Jaume Joan de Cortès, a knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. This religious-military order held estates and exercised lordship in parts of medieval and early-modern Europe.
During the eighteenth century, ownership passed to the Barons of Maldà, who retained it until seigneurial jurisdiction was abolished in the nineteenth century. After that change, Castell de la Morana progressively deteriorated. It was restored in the twenty-first century and later rehabilitated as a dwelling by the architect Josep Mora i Castellà.
The castle’s protected status is recorded in Catalonia from 1988 onward under reference RI-51-0006514. It is classified there as a historical monument, and its Catalan architectural-heritage inventory number is 1849.
Remains
Castell de la Morana occupies the middle of the settlement, on the elevation that defines the right bank of the valley of the Passerell torrent. The complex combines an older, strongly built rectangular structure with a large, irregularly planned manor house dating mainly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A nearby gateway formed part of the access to the settlement.
Castle fabric
Earlier rectangular structure
The oldest visible fabric belongs to a rectangular structure about 8 metres long, with unusually thick walls. Its masonry uses relatively large ashlar blocks of varied shapes. At the northern corner, several horizontally laid blocks measure more than 2 metres in length. The northwestern wall contains much smaller and more irregular stones, probably reflecting a localized repair, while the northeastern wall alternates irregularly between blocks laid lengthwise and crosswise.
Two blocked loopholes survive roughly 3 metres above ground level on the northeastern wall. Several more are preserved in the northeastern wall of the nearly square northern body. The other walls of the older structure are concealed by later additions. Its southern doorway has a semicircular arch built from wedge-shaped stones, with a heraldic shield set into the central stone. The northern entrance is modern, with a flatter segmental arch constructed in brick.
Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manor house
Most of the surviving complex consists of a large manor house with an irregular plan. Its walls have battered lower sections, meaning that the bases slope outward for added stability. The façades contain windows with horizontal lintels and narrow openings shaped like loopholes. Two windows on the south façade retain decorated mouldings.
Gateway to La Morana
Near the castle, a gateway gives access to the settlement. It is formed by two successive arcades. The first is a semicircular arch made with wedge-shaped stones and carries a stone coat of arms in its keystone, depicting the outline of a bird and a trunk. The date 1630 is carved beneath it. The second arcade, inside Plaça Gabriel Benet, is a flatter segmental arch built with smaller wedge-shaped stones. Beam holes between the two arcades show that a passage once occupied the intervening space, although that passage has not survived.
