Can Coll: A Fortified Agricultural Estate in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page14 sections
History
Can Coll is a fortified agricultural estate in Spain, located in Lliçà de Vall, with origins documented in the fourteenth century and a defensive tower built in 1576. The complex developed as a Catalan masia, a rural farmhouse combining a residence with stables, storage, and farming facilities. For centuries, it formed the centre of an extensive agricultural holding and administered cultivated land, woodland, and several dependent farmhouses.
Medieval Origins and Agricultural Expansion
Can Coll began as an agricultural farmstead whose buildings and surrounding land acquired different functions over successive phases. By the end of the nineteenth century, the holding covered more than 165 hectares. It was then the largest estate in Lliçà de Vall and the sixth largest in the surrounding comarca, a regional administrative and geographic division in Catalonia.
The estate included Can Canyet, Can Xiol, and Casa Nueva del Pla. Casa Nueva del Pla later disappeared, while the other farmhouses remained associated with the agricultural organization of Can Coll. The Llanza family owned properties in several localities and managed their estates through administrators and tenant farmers. Several prominent local families successively directed Can Coll, and during repeated periods over the previous 150 years, the estate manager also served as mayor of Lliçà de Vall.
Can Coll’s former territory extended across much of the municipality. Its woodland reached toward the Can Riera range and the boundary with Granollers, and part of this land remains within the enclosure of Can Ivo. The estate was also connected to the village and nearby mills by a road that ran from the church along a stream bed toward the Can Roure mill and the Baix mill, also known as Can Xiol. Soft ground made movement difficult for horses and carts, and the later construction of a parallel road gave an important boost to activity in the village.
The Sixteenth-Century Tower
The fortified tower was added in 1576 for self-defence and also expressed the prosperity and authority of wealthy peasants. Its construction received authorization from the viceroys. An inscription identifies Pere Coll as the person who commissioned the work and gives the date as 7 April 1576. The tower became part of the larger agricultural complex rather than a separate military structure.
Chapel and Religious Use
The Chapel of St John the Baptist was blessed in 1660. It replaced an earlier chapel dating from the eleventh century and continued the estate’s religious use through a later phase of the property’s history. During the period when Can Coll belonged to the Sancho-Vilardell family, its pictorial decoration was probably produced by Palacio Ferré, a Catalan artist associated with painting and sculpture. The existing stone altar is attributed to Josep Maria Subirachs, a Catalan sculptor and painter, although its authorship has not been proven.
Modern Changes and Protection
During the twentieth century, Can Coll continued to combine domestic, agricultural, and changing private uses. The lower floor of the main house operated as a restaurant from the 1970s until 2002. A modern dwelling was attached to the house during the 1970s above the former wine cellar. Under the last Llanza owners, part of the garden served as a private gymnasium. The Sancho family later created the garden on one side of the house, while the garden opposite remained private to that family even during more than twenty years of restaurant operation.
The cultivation of hemp at the Can Coll pond ended in 1923. The pond then served other purposes, including use as a swimming pool, and its area is now occupied by a municipal car park. In 2017, the municipality acquired Can Coll for municipal use. The property is protected in Catalonia as a Cultural Asset of National Interest and is included in Spain’s General Register of Assets of Cultural Interest and the Inventory of Catalonia’s Architectural Heritage.
Can Coll was also part of the Mina dels Set Socis, a society founded on 4 September 1805 by Can Coll, Can Gurri, Can Nadal, and four other farmhouses in Parets del Vallès. The society constructed a water mine and irrigation channels for agricultural and domestic supply. The mine began at the Tenes River in Lliçà d’Amunt, north of the Granollers road, then ran near the western side of the Parets to Bigues road. It passed beneath the road near Can Paiet, continued by the Rentador de les Casetes, and reached the Can Roura and Baix mills.
Remains
Can Coll survives as a large estate complex of 3,340 square metres on a 20,000-square-metre parcel. Its principal elements are the agricultural house, the attached tower, the chapel, an enclosed precinct, auxiliary buildings, gardens, and features linked to farming and water management. Large stone walls, vaulted lower rooms, agricultural installations, and later additions preserve the changing functions of the property.
Main Buildings
Main House
The main house covers 2,840 square metres and was built as an agricultural farmstead. Its ground floor contained stables, storerooms, kitchens, tenant accommodation, animal areas, and equipment used in farming. Vaulted construction strengthened this level and helped prevent damp associated with the animals from rising into the first floor. The large room and kitchen had fireplaces, and three drinking troughs for animals remain among the recorded features.
The first floor contained the principal residence, including dining rooms, bedrooms, alcoves, bathrooms, pantries, a games room, a reading room, a ballroom, and a wine cellar. Granaries and servants’ bedrooms occupied the upper floor. The building has large stone walls, two broad doorways with arches formed from wedge-shaped stones, and rectangular windows. Owners and tenant farmers initially shared the entrance, but a separate entrance for the tenants was soon created.
The principal facade faces northeast, an unusual orientation among Catalan farmhouses. The roofs have two slopes without a ridge, and a hexagonal sundial is set on one lateral facade. Millstones brought from elsewhere decorate the ground at the main entrance. A modern dwelling built during the 1970s stands behind the tower beside the house, above the old wine cellar, which retained a small number of wine casks and bottles. A short staircase connects the dwelling with the living room.
Defensive Tower
The square tower stands at the eastern end of the complex and is attached to the farmstead. It rises through four storeys and has associated annexes. Its windows have slightly projecting sills, while its four-sided roof is topped by a bell gable, a wall-like structure above the roof with an opening for a bell. An attached rectangular body has a two-slope roof whose ridge runs parallel to the facade. The tower also contains two large arched doorways and numerous rectangular windows.
The tower’s supporting base, or socle, and its corner frames are built from large ashlar blocks, which are regularly cut stones fitted into masonry. An exterior bas-relief shows two angels holding a shield, with another head beneath it. The construction inscription names Pere Coll and dates the tower to 7 April 1576.
Chapel of St John the Baptist
The small Chapel of St John the Baptist retains elements of its former worship. Its stone altar bears the alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, which in Christian art represent the totality of Christ. A wrought-iron cross shows Christ facing the altar rather than the congregation. A ceramic composition by Gibernau depicting St John the Baptist is set beneath the portico of the enclosing wall.
Enclosure and Auxiliary Buildings
Fortified Precinct
A wall and large gate formerly enclosed the house within a fortified precinct. In front of the tower, a small building served as a carriage house for storing a horse-drawn cart. To the right of the wall’s portico, an old arrow slit remains. Such a narrow opening allowed occupants to observe or use weapons from behind the protection of the wall.
A small chamber beside the arrow slit stored agricultural tools and enabled occupants to watch for unwelcome visitors. Adjacent rooms, formerly animal stalls and now fitted as lavatories, face the main facade. Behind them, within the present principal garden, were a chicken yard, a pigsty, and a vegetable garden. The paving still preserves traces of the columns that supported a canopy over the former private gymnasium.
Ice House
Behind the house, outside the walls and concealed by shrubs, stands an unrestored ice house, a structure used to store ice for preservation and cooling before mechanical refrigeration. It measures 25 metres in diameter. A hackberry tree has grown at its centre, and its thick branches project above the area where the roof once stood.
Gardens, Threshing Floor, and Water Features
The main garden occupies the former animal yard and pigsty and is enclosed by a large iron gate. It contains Mediterranean plants, a large sandy courtyard used occasionally for municipal and associative activities, a fountain, and a stream crossed by a bridge. A rockery formerly held a statue or image of the Virgin. At the far end, a small built platform in a corner served as a stage during the restaurant period.
Beside the platform stands a former twin-trunk hackberry tree. One half fell and now rests beside the base of the surviving trunk, which has been reinforced with bricks and mortar. The garden also contains extensive shade from large trees and flowers of many colours. A second garden lies on the opposite side of the house and can be reached from the path in front of the tower or by a staircase descending from the modern dwelling.
The square in front of the tower occupies the former threshing floor, where cereals were processed with the farm’s horses and wooden rollers. Separate tools were used for wheat and oats and for broad beans. The grain was winnowed with hackberry pitchforks and later with machines brought from Llinars. A hackberry more than 15 metres high grows at the former threshing floor, with a large hollow trunk.
The Can Coll pond, also called the Hemp Pond because of its former cultivation, lay beneath the Parets to Bigues road opposite Can Canyet. Its area is now used as a municipal car park. The estate’s water infrastructure included the mine from the Tenes River, irrigation channels, washing facilities, and the connections that carried water toward the Can Roura and Baix mills.
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