Olèrdola

The hill of Olèrdola, 358 metres above the surrounding plain, was known as early as 979 in a document that names it *civitate Olerdula*. It had been an Iberian settlement before the Romans took it over and reinforced it with walls two metres thick — walls that bear comparison to those of Tarragona and were rebuilt in later centuries. The site re-entered history in 930 when Count Suñer I repopulated it as a forward military stronghold against Muslim incursion. It served as the capital of the Penedès region until the Christian conquest of Tarragona in 1089, after which it lost its strategic importance. In 1108 the Almoravids destroyed it. Its remaining population gradually moved to flatter ground, eventually founding Vilafranca del Penedès.

The whole hilltop site now belongs to the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya. Inside the walls, an interpretation centre displays prehistoric, Iberian, Roman, and medieval finds. Elsewhere within the enclosure you can see grain silos cut into the rock and a channel system that fed rainwater into a rock-cut cistern with a capacity of 328 cubic metres. At the highest point stand the ruins of the castle Suñer I ordered built in the tenth century, probably on top of earlier remains.

The church of Sant Miquel de Olèrdola, just inside the walled enclosure, is of Mozarabic origin. Documents record that in 991 the Bishop of Barcelona came to confirm its revenues and boundaries; it was built at the initiative of Suñer I and Bishop Teuderic of Barcelona. The building shows three distinct construction phases, the earliest dating to around 930.

Outside the walls lies a medieval quarter called the Pla dels Albats, which contains the ruins of a Romanesque chapel and one of the most significant collections of anthropomorphic tomb cuttings in Catalonia. About a kilometre away stands the hermitage of the Holy Sepulchre, a circular-plan building with early Romanesque mural paintings dating from 1061.

The municipality also contains several other religious buildings. The church of Sant Miquel in the village of Moja grew up around an early circular defensive tower and includes a Romanesque circular-plan church that is privately enclosed. The parish church on the main square, the Plaça de l'Església, dates to 991 in origin but was entirely rebuilt in 1774; it has three naves, a rectangular apse, and a popular Baroque façade. Next to it, in the former Molanta palace, two anthropomorphic tombs have been found. A third church, built between 1885 and 1889 to replace the castle chapel, has a semicircular nave, an octagonal bell tower, and pointed-arch windows.