Today, The Grandma has received news from Mayte, one of her closest friends.
Mayte has visited Montblanc,the capital of La Conca de Barbera county, and she has shared her memories and photos with TheGrandma.
Montblanc is the capital of the Catalan county Conca de Barberà. The Prades Mountains are located in the vicinity of this town. The municipality comprises the settlements of Montblanc, La Guàrdia dels Prats, Lilla, Prenafeta, Rojals, and El Pinetell.
The area around Montblanc has been inhabited for thousands of years. Evidence of cave dwellings have been found dating back to Palaeolithic times.
From the 4th to the 1st century BC Iberian villages existed on Santa Bàrbara hill. These villages coexisted with the early Roman settlers. Evidence of Roman artifacts have been found which date from between the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD.
After the invasion by the Moors in 711 AD, much of the area became dominated by a patchwork of Islamic fiefdoms. The Islamic invasion initiated a long period of very successful agricultural and commercial development. This was responsible for the birth of many towns and villages in the region which still retain their Islamic names. The 10th and 11th centuries seem to have been a period of relatively peaceful coexistence in which Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in the region of Montblanc. This productive period continued until an allegiance of forces, strongly supported by the Roman Catholic Church, initiated an era of expulsions, which forced Muslims and Jews to leave the Iberian peninsula.
Maties Palau Ferré (1921-2000), painter and sculptor, disciple of Pablo Picasso, was born and died in Montblanc.
An important legend was collected by the Catalan writer about customs and manners Joan Amades who placed the fight of Saint George and the dragon in front of Montblanc town walls.
A long time ago a fierce dragon frightened the people in Montblanc. It ate up the pasture animals to such an extent to threaten the town’s population. So as to avoid the attack of the beast it was decided to give it a person every day. There was a draw among the population, the king’s family was included in it, and the destiny wanted the king’s daughter to be the person chosen. When she was going to be swallowed by the dragon a horseman appeared and saved her of being killed by the dragon. The horseman was Saint George. At the place where the dragon poured out its blood a rosebush with red roses grew. Since then it has been maintained the Catalan tradition in which men give a red rose to their beloved women.
Every year, coinciding with St. George day (23rd April) Montblanc organises a Medieval Week. During two weekends the town revives its medieval origin and the streets, squares and towers are embellished with the noble flags and standards. There are a lot of activities that transport the visitors back to the Middle Age: the performance of Saint George's legend, the scenes of medieval life, the medieval supper, a concentration of dragons and fire, the medieval market, the performance of the Catalan Courts and so on…
The Medieval Week of Saint George has turned into the most important and most famous celebration in Montblanc. It has been designated as a Festival of National Tourist interest in Catalonia.
Today, The Grandma has followed with interest the latest news about the fire that is affecting the counties of Anoia and Conca de Barberà and that is destroying ancient places and monuments and affecting flora and fauna.
A fire is always desolate, but it also teaches us many things, such as the paradox of the fragility of the forest in the face of recklessness or human economic interests and the strength of this forest itself when it comes to following its natural cycle and being reborn between the flames.
History is curious, and these days has shown us how there are places that are reluctant to disappear. Wars, economic interests, fires... many are the enemies of heritage, although stronger is the resilience of it that remains alive and standing, unaltered, reminding us every day who we are and where we come from, and marking the path to choose where we want to go and how we want to get there.
The Castle of Queralt dates from the 11th century and its history is our history, because its walls and its surroundings tell us our past, give meaning to our present and guide us towards a future that we desire splendid and in harmony with nature and cultural heritage.
The Grandma and all her friends want to send a huge hug to all the inhabitants of Bellprat, Santa Maria de Miralles and Santa Coloma de Queralt who have been affected by this ecological tragedy, while recognizing, once again, the professionals who risk their lives to take care of our land: farmers, firefighters, rural agents, health workers and volunteers, who have worked tirelessly to prevent this tragedy from being even greater.
Bellprat, surrounded by forests and fields, is a small town in the region of Anoia,with human presence since ancient times, according to remains of the Bronze Age with Iberian settlements.
Nearby, the Castle of Queralt, Castell de Queralt in Catalan, dominates the whole area and is from where you can enjoy a magnificent view over the counties of Anoia, Segarra and Conca de Barberà.
The Castle of Queralt was, in the 10th century, an advanced bastion of the county of Barcelona, documented since 960. Its existence dates back to the previous century.
In 976, Count Borrell sold it to Guitart, Viscount of Barcelona, obtained, by conquest of his grandfather Guifré and by will of his father Sunyer, for the price of 200 pesos of silver. Under the influence of the castle, the town of Bellprat was born.
The Romanesque church of Sant Jaume de Queralt, located at the foot of the castle, served as a parish until in 1425 it was taken over by the church of SantSalvador in Bellprat.
The small town, at an altitude of 652 m, grows around this church. With a population dedicated almost exclusively to agricultural and livestock activities, in Bellprat wheat, pulses and grapes were harvested and there were also lignite and bauxite farms. The Bellprat
of 1685 had 10 grouped houses and 8 peasants.
Today, it is a quiet
village where the work of the countryside, livestock, an incipient rural
tourism and the families who come here fleeing the noisy cities to
enjoy the silence and nature in their free time.
Bellprat
has managed to beat the passage of time. The old buildings of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been reformed and preserved.
The Castle of Queralt is abuilding inBellprat (Anoia) declared a cultural asset of national interest.
Nearby is the Church of Sant Jaume de Queralt, which is part of the Inventory of the ArchitecturalHeritage of Catalonia.
It is cliffed on a rocky ridge at the western end of the Queralt mountain range, on the south-western side of the Anoia region, near the dividing line with the Conca de Barberà, the Alt Camp and the Alt Penedès. In the 10th century and due to its strategic location, the castle represents the end of the Marca.
Indirectly, the existence of this fortress can be traced back to the government of Count Guifré, between the years 880-897, when this count organized the repopulation of the county of Osona, of which the Castle of Queralt was at that time the most western. In 976 Count Borrell II and his wife Ledgarda sold to Guitard, Viscount of Barcelona, the Castle of Queralt, located on the edge of the Marca against Spain.
The Barcelona viscount's family leaves the castle in favour of Trasoar from the family of the viscounts of Osona, whose children were awarded the possession of the castle in its entirety. At the beginning of the 11th century, the property was discussed between two lords, Sal·la, bishop of Urgell and Sendred de Gurb.
In 1002, the counts of Barcelona Ramon Borrell and Ermessenda of Carcassonne summoned a trial, and it is assumed that the sentence, which is not known, was in favour of Bishop Sal·la. However, the place is linked to the Gurb-Queralts, who were the only lords, we do not know if by purchase or usurpation, a method often used at the time.
During the period of government of Bernat Sendred de Gurb, there was a major repopulation of the western lands of the castle, creating new settlements and the castles of Montargull, Rauric and Figuerola, a task that continued his son Guillem Bernat de Queralt, who died in 1084 and first to use the locative of Queralt as a surname.
Due to several deaths without descendants the property was divided in two branches of the family called Queralt and that owned different class from dominion; for example, on the eminent domain (the right of property superior to the useful dominion of the lords), and the other the possession in feud or the castlania. At the end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth, the main branch disappeared, and the secondary branch settled in Queralt.
In 1212, Arnau of Timor bought from Berenguer III of Gurb Queralt the castle in free and his son was named Queralt and reunited the barony of Santa Coloma.
Around 1365 he belonged to Dalmau de Queralt, lord, also of the place of Santa Coloma. Notable lords of Queralt were Pere IV de Queralt, who died in 1408, and above all Pere VI de Queralt, a soldier, diplomat, man of letters, who was in the service of kings Pere el del Punyalet, Joan I and Martí l'Humà.
In 1463 a successor of the lineage, Guerau I, a supporter of the Catalan cause of the Generalitat, was dispossessed by his son Dalmau II, a supporter of John II. Peter VIII, in 1599, received the title of Count of Santa Coloma from Philip III of Castile. The heir, Dalmau III of Queralt, was viceroy of Catalonia at the outbreak of the War of the Reapers (Guerra dels Segadors) and was killed on the day of the Corpus of Blood (June 7, 1640). His son, distinguished by Philip IV, will be elevated to Grande de España in 1647.
The Count of Santa Coloma sold the castle in 1842 to the merchant Josep Safont. The last time it was used as a defence was in the Carlist War.
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