,Within the province of Barcelona There is a municipality made up of a group of picturesque towns: one of them is Pujalt. It is a very small town, with just over 200 inhabitants and a centuries-old history.
What do you think if today we know what it is like and what we can do in Pujalt?
Pujalt
It is within the Anoia region, center of Catalonia, along with Vila-major, Guàrdia Pilosa, Conill and Astor, the other centers of the municipality. It is located in the Catalan Central Depression so It enjoys beautiful panoramic views of the Pyrenees, the mountains of Pinós, Boixadors, Plans d'Urgell and the ridges of Montserrat.
Despite being part of a very small municipality, the area offers many activities to its visitors and it is best to take a tour of all its small towns because each one is unique. In the case of Pujalt, the most striking and picturesque are its stone houses, its very old covered steps and its alleys.
History books tell us that the town was born from a castle, Pujalt Castle, which centuries ago was part of the domains of the Cervera family, in the county of Cerdaña. Later, the lands passed into the hands of King Jaime I of Aragon and in the XNUMXth century the Cardona family took it over.
What to see in Pujalt
The people It is less than 10 kilometers from the town of Sort, in the province of Lleida, at 1100 meters high. Enjoy a Mediterranean mountain climate, with very cold winters and lots of snow and milder summers.
As soon as you enter the town there is a building where the Pujalt Meteorological and Astronomical Observatory. The place offers many activities for the public to enjoy and if you stay overnight, there are some that take place during these hours and focus on observing the night skies.
La Church of San Andreu de Pujalt is from Eleventh century and although over time it has undergone some modifications, it is a building that is more than a thousand years old so it is still fabulous. The temple is in the northwest corner of the urban center.
The church is the heart of Pujalt and today we see that it still has some of the late Romance style in which it was built. The most recent thing it has is the bell tower from 1871, but if you stay for a day and contemplate the different tones that the sun takes from the stone as it passes through the sky you will be amazed.
El Pujalt Castle, The weed, is also part of the historic heart of Pujalt, although you have to have a lot of imagination to give "Castilian" life to what remains of the old walls, and to glimpse how that fortress once decorated the mountain at 773 meters above sea level.
Near what was the old wall there is another church, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, built in the XNUMXth century. It also has a bell tower and inside there is a beautiful image of the Virgin and Child from the same period. People call the fountain next to the church "fountain of lovers." It is not flashy, mind you, but rather simple.
What is very nice about the entire town is its architecture, so typical in the area: stones everywhere, playing with the sun's rays, whipped by the wind, covered by the winter snows.
There are many old and picturesque houses in Pujalt: Casa Antón, Casa Cadavalli, Casa Rey, Casa Jordi, Casa Peret, Casa Quet, Casa Pico, Casa Beta or Casa Astieni, just to name a few of these beautiful buildings.
If we move a little further away from the Middle Ages and go further back in time, we can see a chapter in Spanish history: the Civil War. In 1938, a camp of the popular republican army was established in Pujalt. in which 1200 people lived. Today that place has been transformed into a museum, the Memorial Museum, which explains well what life was like then and how that camp changed the dynamics of the town.
The museum has a Interpretation Center where you can see objects that were left by soldiers when they fled to the trenches, old buildings and facilities in the surrounding forests, especially in La Muntada.
Another museum in the area is the Papallones Museum, the one of butterflies. Here visitors can take a virtual trip and learn about the multiple species of butterflies that exist in Catalonia and how they benefit the environment.
Another good destination related to nature in the Pujalt area is the Algüestortes National Park. This is the westernmost part of the Catalan Pyrenees. Here you can go hiking, climbing, horseback riding and go fishing. Some of its peaks exceed three thousand meters high and there are ravines, waterfalls, swamps, colorful ponds and many animals. In fact, the aigüestortes, the high mountain meanders, crooked waters, are what have baptized it.
The park has its current surface since 1996: 14.119 hectáreas. In 1988 the park and its surroundings were declared Special Protection Area for Birds and since 2006 it has been part of the list of wetlands of international importance. Is he quintessential alpine landscape and it was the Quaternary glaciers that carved it so beautifully.
Another nearby park is Alt Pirineu Natural Park, the largest in Catalonia, but in truth both spaces are great destinations to enjoy Spanish nature at its maximum splendor. The fans of hiking, canyoning, bungee jumping, mountain bike excursions or hydrospeed They will be happy. And, in winter, you can always ski in the ski resorts of Port Ainé, Baqueira Beret and Espot.
But if you are not such an active person you can simply walk, observe, rest, have fun, eat and drink. Here in Pujalt you can relax and enjoy, in addition to the good local gastronomy. What does it offer? Typical of the region, Typical mountain food with local products: pot meat, pumpkin soup, rice with reels, snails a la llauna, galets soup, many aromatic herbs, Tupí cheese and Filiberto cheese, trout caught in the area's rivers and sausages such as girella, secallona or xolis.
And if you are by car and plan to leave Pujalt and do rides So you can get closer to Sort oa Gerri de la Sal, nearby towns full of charm.