MIRAVET: THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN RIBERA D'EBRE

Joseph de Ca'th Lon in Miravet, Ribera d'Ebre

Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and his friends have visited Miravet, a beautiful and amazing town in Ribera d'Ebre. 

Miravet is famous thanks to its beauty and its interesting history with Moors and Knights Templar.

During the travel from Corbera d'Ebre to Miravet, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 12).

More information: People and behaviour

Miravet is a little village located in the middle of the Terres de l’Ebre, in the middle of a beautifull landscape between mountains, the River Ebre and a leafy bank forest. You can enjoy the view by crossing the river with the ferry.

Arriving in Miravet on the ferry that crosses the Riber Ebre, the last one of its type that has been conserved in the Terres de l’Ebre, is an unique experience. Today, of course, a medieval tax is no longer charged for the crossing, and though cars are now transported, the ferry still uses the river current as its only driving force.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Miravet Castle

Miravet Castle, an imposing fortress surrounded by a wall 25 meters high that seems to arise from rocks and located on a hill overlooking the course of the Ebre and the surrounding land.

This strategic position has made it succeed settlements since prehistoric times and has assumed an important role in various conflicts.

Today you can still see part of the structures of a Moorish fortress on which stood the Templar Castle, immediately after the conquest of these lands by Ramon Berenguer IV. The castle was given to the Knights Templar, which became the headquarters of the Templar province of Catalonia and Aragon during the period would be more power and splendor of the history of Miravet.

The end of this stage also meant the most dramatic episode of its history with a siege of more than a year, which preceded the disappearance of the Order of the Temple.

More information: Turisme Miravet

Although later the castle was remodeled to suit the requirements of defense entails the appearance of artillery, appearance and structures that have arrived are essentially works of the Knights Templar. So Miravet has become one of the best examples of military architecture of XII-XIII Catalan.

The Grandma & Claire visit Miravet Castle

Making use of a crag, the Moors decided to found the, nowadays, Old Village, and crowning the rock, the great castle, rebuilt by the Knights Templars and transformed into a fortress-monastery, after the conquest of 1153.

It is considered to be the largest fortified complex in Catalonia, and one of the best examples of Romanesque, religious and military, architecture of the Templar order in the whole Western world. It keeps alive the memory of the end of the Knights at the Crown of Aragon, who suffered a 12 month siege, between 1307 and 1308.

The other architectural treasures are in the Old Village, the Old Church by the Hospital order, dating from the Renaissance and unique in its style throughout the Terres de l’Ebre, it conserves the original stone altar from the castle, the remains of wall paintings and somes expositions. In contrast to this, we find the Islamic Arch for the Aljama-mosque in the backside of the church, and the Sanaqueta balcony over the river.

The clay pottery, the most ancestral tradition that is conserved in Miravet and in the Terres de l’Ebre, has for centuries seduced visitors who came to this town, and can now be see in Miravet.

There are still eight workshops, which are located toghether in the Raval quarter. There masters can be found making pieces by hand and still using the potter’s wheel; with shapes and glazes introduced from the Islamic world, such as pitchers,vats and jars.

More information: Patrimoni-GenCat

Veritas vos liberabit.

The truth shall set you free.

Templar Proverb