Cardona castle

Cardona castle was built in 886 by Wilfred the Hairy and has undergone refurbishments and extensions over the centuries. It currently has elements of Romanesque and Gothic styles and has shutters dating from the 11th and 12th centuries.

The Cardona castle was built in 886 by Guifré el Pilós and has undergone renovations and extensions over the course of the centuries. It currently has Roman and Gothic elements and has wooden shutters dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. It is over a total area of 62.000 m2, within which there is the Parador Nacional, the cloister (Gothic, dating from the 14th century and recently restored), the golden room, the mezzanine room, the patio (14th century, with subsequent modifications), the Sant Ramon Nonat chapel (1683), the Minyona tower and the collegiate church of Sant Vicenç, all of which is surrounded with walls, the most outer of which date from the 17th century.

The Minyona tower is the pearl of the castle. It is a circular building from the 11th century built in a roman style and more than 10 m in diameter and presently 15 metres in height. It used to be higher but it was knocked down to its current size in the 18th century to install a canon. The tower is testament to the story of the young historia Adalés, kept as a recluse here by his parents, the Viscount Ramon Folc and his wife Engúncia, as punishment for the relationship that he had started with a moor from Maldà castle. Adalés died here after barely a year.

The collegiate church of Sant Vicenç is one of the most notable monuments of the Catalan Roman period. Built in 1040 on the site of the old chapel of the castle, it is noted for its size and luminosity. It is made up of three naves with aspes and a splendid crypt below the presbytery, called the chapel of the Relics because for a time it contained the remains of san Sebastià, santa Úrsula and santa Agnès, that are currently in the Solsona cathedral. Theb>atrium was decorated with wall paintings from the 12th century that today are kept in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (the National Museum of the Art of Catalonia). One of the interesting facts about the castle is that the director Orson Welles filmed several scenes of the film Chimes at Midnight (1965) there.

Virtual tour