Les Oluges, a collection of municipalities with a story to tell
Les Oluges is a
walled town from the 11th century on top of a hill. The village and parish of Les Oluges Altes and Baixes are located on each corner of the Sió river, formerly called Oluja Soberana or Alta and Oluja de Baix. During the last century, a lot was built and the two Oluges ended up forming a single town.
The territory of the current municipality was part of the county of Cerdanya and during the repopulation period, people from Solsonés and
Bages settled there. The
castle of Oluja is from this same period. Les Oluges was created during the rule of Bernat I (1035-1049), count of
Berga, to repopulate this land after the reconquest.
The municipal term also includes the towns of
Montfalcó Murallat and Santa Fe .
In this town, Pere
Vila Codina was born, a merchant who went to the Americas and became a great patron of education.
In 1375, the walled enclosure of Montfalcó Murallat became part of the county of
Cardona due to its status as a closed town. Its walls have been protagonists of several wars such as that of the reapers.
What can we visit if we are staying in a rural holyday cottage in Les Oluges?
In Les Oluges we can visit the church of Santa Maria de les Oluges , a building with three naves and a neoclassical portal from the 18th century. Originally there were two villages with their castles and churches. Today, the best preserved church is that of Santa Maria de les Olugues at the top of the hill and the castle, the Jussà castle, the one in Baix, which we find in the square on the way to the top. This castle is of Renaissance construction from the 16th century and the square plan, the portal and the windows are preserved. You can also distinguish the heraldic elements of the building family.
The Oluges Castle , also called Oluja Baixa or Oluja Jussana, has been documented since 1072. It was one of the many fortifications in La Segarra built to fight the Muslims. During the Catalan civil war, in 1462, the owners of the castle, the family of Pere Ramon d'Oluja, were supporters of Juan II and hosted their son Fernando, the future Catholic king, who spent long periods there. It consists of a square tower where a large portal with long gables stands out, the windows with Renaissance-style mouldings. In the 16th century, the castle was modified and turned into a large stately palace of Renaissance inspiration, maintaining the exterior structure. Today it is a holyday cottage.
Santa Fe is a medieval town with cobbled houses and steep streets that lead up to a medieval castle in the Platresque style that dates from the 15th century. Pieces of the wall and one of the access portals to the old closed town still remain. Curiously, the Romanesque church is located outside the town.
Montfalcó Murallat still preserves the medieval enclosed town. The perimeter wall is preserved in very good condition and the houses inside are attached to each other and some of them are even part of the wall. It can only be accessed on foot and through the only arched door that leads to the town's main square. It is a town of narrow, dead-end or circular streets that return to the main square. You can still see the remains of the oven and the communal cistern that collected water from all the veins in the 11th century and is still used today.
The legend of the siege of Montfalcó Walled explains that during a medieval battle the inhabitants of Montfalcó locked themselves inside the walled enclosure and faced their adversaries, who, not finding a way to enter, decided to practice a siege. Seeing that the town did not surrender, the attackers tried to create an internal revolt by throwing messages tied to bread, trying to rebel against their bosses, but the inhabitants of Montfalcó, far from surrendering, responded to the messages throwing fresh fish.
They say that there is a tunnel, through which a horse and its rider can pass, that connects Montfalcó with Les Oluges and that therefore the besieged could access the neighboring town to get food.
What landscapes do we see from our holiday cottage?
From the window of our rural accommodation, we can enjoy a typical Segarra landscape, cataloged as Costers de la Segarra , greatly modified by the human presence with cultivated fields, especially oats and barley. There are also olive trees, almond trees and vineyards, which had been very important crops before the phylloxera crisis.
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