Vallfogona de Riucorb
Encyclopedia
Vallfogona de Riucorb (ˌbaʎfuˈɣonə ðə riwˈkɔrp) is a municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the comarca
Comarques of Catalonia
This is a list of the comarques of Catalonia . A comarca is roughly equivalent to a US "county" or a UK "district". However, in the context of Catalonia, the term "county" can be a bit misleading, because in medieval Catalonia, the most important rulers were counts, notably the Counts of Barcelona...

 of the Conca de Barberà
Conca de Barberà
Conca de Barberà is a comarca in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain.-Municipalities:*Barberà de la Conca - pop. 434*Blancafort - pop. 412*Conesa - pop. 123*Espluga de Francolí - pop. 3,687*Forès - pop. 60*Llorac - pop. 128...

in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. It is situated in the Comalats range in the north of the comarca, with the Cap de Cans rising to 759 m.

It is known for the medicinal mineral water
Mineral water
Mineral water is water containing minerals or other dissolved substances that alter its taste or give it therapeutic value, generally obtained from a naturally occurring mineral spring or source. Dissolved substances in the water may include various salts and sulfur compounds...

 that flows from a local spring, and for the priest and Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 Francesc Vicent Garcia
Francesc Vicent Garcia
Francesc Vicent Garcia i Torres was an early modern Catalan poet known by the pseudonym of the Vallfogona Rector. He was born in Tortosa in the Baix Ebre comarca around 1582 and died in Vallfogona de Riucorb in 1623...

 (1579-1623), "El Rector de Vallfogona." He ordered the construction of the chapel of Santa Bàrbara in 1617.

History

The first historical reference to Vallfogona records the founding of the parish in 1123 after its reconquest from the Moors, who had called it Vall d'Alfes. The town was a fief of the noble house of the Counts of Queralt. By 1150, the local lord, Gombau d'Oluja, had occupied the site of Vallfogona and had repopulated the area with Christian Catalans. He laid out the town, building a small castle and beginning construction on the town's Romanesque church, both of which still stand. On his death in 1191, Gombau ceded Vallfogona to the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

. When the Temple was suppressed in 1312, Vallfogona came under control of the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

. In 1416 the Hospitallers reconstructed much of the church and castle.

Vallfogona's first tourist facility, the Fonda Dolores, opened in 1870 to serve visitors to the spring and its medicinal waters.

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), the hotels at the spa served as a hospital for wounded Republican soldiers. About 100 casualties were buried in a mass grave in the cemetery. Three men, all conservatives, were shot by leftist forces at the beginning of the conflict. Eleven soldiers from Vallfogona died in the fighting, all on the Republican side. The Francoist victors did not execute any Vallfogonins, but at least five of them were imprisoned and several had to flee to France. Vallfogona lost nearly 20% of its population.

Vallfogona de Riucorb became part of the Conca de Barberà in the comarcal reorganization of 1990: previously it had formed part of the Segarra
Segarra
Segarra is a comarca in Catalonia, Spain, situated on a high plain. Historically, the name referred to a larger area than the current comarca. It has a continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers, and between 350 and 450 mm of rainfall per year. It is a grain-growing region, with some...

.

On July 10, 2010, the newly restored Romanesque sculpture of Saint Peter "dels Vigues" was unveiled; it had been pulled down from the roof of Vallfogona's parish church by anarchists during the Spanish Civil War, and broken up. The restored statue is inside the church, and a copy was made and placed in the statue's original position on the roof above the front door.

Economy

Vallfogona depends economically on agriculture and tourism. It forms part of the officially recognized Costers del Segre
Costers del Segre
Costers del Segre is a Spanish Denominación de Origen for wines located in the province of Lleida and is divided into several separate sub-zones. The four original subzones created in 1988 are Artesa, to the northeast of Lleida, Valls de Riucorb to the east, Garrigues and Raïmat...

 wine region; other crops are olives, almonds, wheat, and barley. A spa-hotel complex was constructed in the early 20th century to take advantage of the spring's waters and attract visitors. Today Vallfogona has two hotels and a restaurant. Additionally, it has an attractive public swimming pool-bar open during the summer months, popular among the locals. The forests to the south and southeast of Vallfogona are mostly pine and oak.

Transportation

The village is linked to Guimerà
Guimerà
Guimerà is a village in the province of Lleida and autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain.-References:...

 and to Santa Coloma de Queralt
Santa Coloma de Queralt
Santa Coloma de Queralt is a municipality in the comarca of the Conca de Barberà in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the north-east of the comarca.The town is linked to the rest of the comarca and to Igualada by the C-241 road.-Main sights:...

 by local roads, and a twice-daily bus service between Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 and Guimerà stops there. A track connects Vallfogona with the naturist village of El Fonoll
El Fonoll
El Fonoll is a naturist village in Catalonia, Spain, situated in the inland comarca of Conca de Barberà. The village is ancient, and had fallen into ruins before being restored and turned into a naturist resort around the year 2000....

.

External links




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