Castell de Vacarisses: A Historic Castle and Noble Farmhouse in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page8 sections
History
Castell de Vacarisses is a historic castle complex in Spain, in Vacarisses, Barcelona. It is first specifically documented in 1001, when Borrell, the medieval count of Barcelona, transferred the property and lordship over the counties of Osona and Manresa to his wife, Ermessenda of Carcassonne, a countess who exercised substantial political authority in Catalonia. In 1023, Ermessenda pledged several castles, including Vacarisses, to her son Berenguer Ramon I.
Medieval lordship
By 1072, Vacarisses belonged to the Montcada family. The family administered the castle through lieutenants, or castellans, local officers responsible for defending and managing a castle on behalf of its lord. In 1291, the castle formed part of the nuptial gift connected with the marriage of Guilleuma de Montcada and the infante Pere, a son of the reigning monarch who was not the heir apparent. Guilleuma, the last possessor of the family line, died in 1309.
On 30 August 1358, King Pere the Ceremonious, the regnal name of a fourteenth-century king of Aragon and count of Barcelona, sold the castle together with Rellinars and other surrounding parishes to Jaume Desfar for 4,000 sous. An inventory from 1359 records the castle’s military equipment. In 1396, during the war against the Count of Foix, the building was fortified. Throughout the fifteenth century, the history of Vacarisses parish remained closely linked to that of the castle.
The Desfar and Amat succession
From 1596, Isabel Desfar was recorded as lady of Vacarisses, Rellinars, and Castellbell. Her marriage to Francesc Amat brought the Amat family into the succession. In 1702, Josep Amat received the title of Marquis of Castellbell. His descendant Manuel Amat i Junyent, born in 1707, later served as governor of Chile and as viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776. A viceroy exercised a monarch’s authority over a large territory.
Around 1773, the castle was adapted for agricultural work and the collection of dues. During the nineteenth century, some rooms were used for a boys’ school and the town hall. These new civic and educational functions required alterations to the interior and further changed the character of the former stronghold.
Decline, study, and rehabilitation
In 1939, the marquisate passed to Dolors, a Grandee of Spain and the wife of Lluís Villalonga. A Grandee of Spain belonged to the highest rank of Spanish nobility. Joaquim Villalonga sold the castle to Antoni Roure i Jofre in 1948, and Roure i Jofre was identified as its owner in the 1980s.
After the school and town hall moved to new buildings in 1974, the castle was left practically unused. The municipality acquired it in 1985, after preparations for restoration had begun, and the building was subsequently rehabilitated. Castell de Vacarisses has been designated a Cultural Asset of National Interest as a historical monument since 1988.
An archaeological intervention and historical study in 2003 examined the building before rehabilitation. The sondages led to the theory that the earliest castle may have stood at the nearby Torrota and that the stronghold was transferred to the present site during the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Another possibility remained open, namely that the earlier castle occupied the present location but was entirely destroyed when a new building was erected in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Archaeological monitoring during adaptation works in 2005 and 2006 established the chronology of several previously difficult-to-date elements and generally supported the conclusions reached in 2003.
Remains
The noble farmhouse
The present complex has the character of a noble farmhouse dating mainly from the seventeenth or eighteenth century. It occupies a dominant position and is arranged on a rectangular plan. A double-pitched roof covered with Arabic tiles extends over the building, with its ridge running horizontally along the facade. Beneath it, a small projecting eave is decorated with two rows of tile ends.
Part of the principal facade projects outward. Its entrance has a doorway formed by large stone voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones that make up an arch. Three rectangular windows on the upper floor are protected by iron railings. The exterior walls are plastered, while the corner stones and window lintels remain exposed.
Medieval structures
The farmhouse stands over earlier construction reaching back to the eleventh century. Surviving retaining walls, which support higher ground or built-up terraces, are made of red stone and date from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Sections of walling and access ramps also remain. Archaeological work identified a group of fourteenth- or fifteenth-century walls built from squared sandstone blocks of highly uniform size, arranged in regular courses.
Agricultural estate
Successive additions during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries altered the complex’s appearance and uses. Its transformation into a large agricultural estate was completed in the eighteenth century with the construction of the entire western wing, an adjoining building on the west, and three wine vats. Attached granaries and cellars formed part of the working complex, along with a threshing floor, a prepared surface used to separate grain from harvested crops.
A relatively modern prison area was created by building a wall inside an older vaulted space. The complex also preserves a stock used for shoeing horses, adding another surviving feature connected with its agricultural functions.
