Castell del Montgrí
| Castell del Montgrí | ||
|---|---|---|
 Castell del Montgrí |
||
| Alternative name (s): | Castillo del Montgrí | |
| Creation time : | 13th Century | |
| Place: | Torroella de Montgrí | |
| Geographical location | 42 ° 3 '7 " N , 3 ° 7' 53" E | |
|
||
The Castell del Montgrí ( Catalan for 'Castle des Montgrí', in Spanish Castillo del Montgrí ) is an unfinished hilltop castle in the province of Girona in Spain , which was built between 1294 and 1301 . It is located above Torroella de Montgrí and is about 6 kilometers from the Costa Brava in Catalonia .
location
The castle complex stands on the top of the 301 m high Montgrí ('gray mountain') in the Montgrí massif . From there you have a wide view of the Alt and Baix Empordà with the Ter lowlands and the Mediterranean Sea with the Bay of Roses . The castle, visible from afar, is the region's landmark. Mountain and castle can be found on coats of arms and logos. The former fortification is located a few hundred meters north of Torroella de Montgrí.
description
The Castell del Montgrí is well preserved. It presents itself in its original state of construction from 1301. Since the castle has not been used since then - apart from the restoration in 1988/89 - there have been no structural changes over the centuries. The architectural style of the entire complex corresponds to the type of crusader castles , which were widely used in Europe after the crusades . The individual structural elements of the castle are shaped by the transition from Romanesque to Gothic .
The castle has neither a moat nor a rampart. The complex, which is closed on all sides, has a square floor plan with a side length of 31 meters. There are four round towers at the corners. The battlements reinforced walls are 13 meters high and can be walked over a battlement . There are loopholes and dungeons in the walls . The Gothic style windows differ from the rest of the Catalan fortifications. Of the towers, only the north-western one towers above the castle wall. It has three floors, while the other three towers only have two floors.
The castle is accessed on the south side through a gate with a round arch. The courtyard is paved with stones; Below is a cistern for collecting rainwater in a barrel vault . There is another brick cistern in the bedrock near the castle. Originally four outbuildings were planned in the inner courtyard of the castle, but they were never implemented. This can be seen in the remaining console stones for arches and vaults.
history
Start of construction in 1294
With the construction of the castle, King James II of Aragon created an advanced fortress for his kingdom on the border with the warring county of Empúries . On May 28, 1294, the king commissioned Bernat de Llabià as his representative in Torroella de Montgrí with the construction of a fortification on the top of the Montgrí mountain. The building material used was the limestone , which was broken on site in the subsoil of the Montgrí mountain , and which was first checked for quality and workability before construction began. Quarry-like rock depressions with hewing and crushing marks right next to the castle still bear witness to the quarrying of stone. The depression created by the extraction of material could possibly have been intended as a moat .
End of construction 1301
The work on the castle that began in 1294 was stopped after seven years of construction in 1301 before completion. The reasons for stopping the building of the castle are no longer known. It could have been for economic reasons. The construction of the castle could have required an enormous amount of effort, as the construction site was on a hilltop that was difficult to access and could only be reached on narrow and steep donkey paths. According to another thesis, it was political reasons that made building a castle unnecessary. 1301 is said to have ended the conflict between the king of Aragon and the county of Empúries. The peace was not documented until 1325, when Count Hug VI. of Empúries and the son of King James II of Aragon, the Infants Peter of Aragón and Anjou , made an exchange of territory. The Count of Empuries exchanged his Catalan territory for land near Valencia .
Since 1301
After 1301 the castle came to the Dalmacio de Castellnou family and later to the Pedro de Llibia family, who continued to own it. The castle was under an administrator until 1472, after which shepherds used it as a refuge in bad weather. Over time, the facility gradually deteriorated. It has been a listed building since 1949. Restoration work took place in the winter of 1988/89. A staircase was built into a tower, which allows tourists to enter the parapet walk around it. Since the hilltop is not accessible to vehicles, all the building materials had to be flown in by helicopter. The inauguration took place on May 7, 1989. The cost of 26 million pesetas was borne by the municipality of Torroella de Montgrí and the province of Girona .
gallery
Ascent to the Castell del Montgrí
View into the interior, clearly recognizable the console stones for the planned interior construction
View from the castle to the Mediterranean Sea with the Illes Medes
_2012-10-13_18-35-47.jpg)
Web links
- Virtual hiking trail to the castle with extensive image material (aerial photos) (Catalan)
- Description of the castle (Catalan) (pdf)
- Floor plan and drawing of the castle (Spanish, Catalan, French, English)
- History of the castle ( Memento of May 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Catalan)
