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Do you know what a sagrera is? Next to the church of Santa Maria, in the center of Sallent, we can see informative panels that explain it, as seen in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
La sagrera, also known as cellera, is a Catalan term that refers to the space that surrounds the churches and is considered a physically sacred territory.
This space had an inviolability distance of 30 steps around the churches and cemeteries, and its origin dates back to the Visigothic councils in the 7th and 7th centuries.
The term sagrera appears in Visigothic documents that establish the inviolability distance of thirty steps around churches and cemeteries.
Starting in the 11th century, the sagreras became true permanent housing nuclei thanks to the Assemblies of Pau i Treva de Déu, which limited violent actions in a period to the 11th century.
The church guaranteed protection against feudal violence and violent acts within a radius of 30 paces around a church or hermitage, under pain of excommunication. People and goods inside the sagrera were protected.
In order to preserve the assets more adequately, small buildings called sagrers in Catalan were built inside the sagrera, which led to the concentration of buildings in the immediate vicinity and even in direct contact with the temples for their most effective protection.
In some cases, the term “sagrera” has been used to name neighborhoods or places close to churches, such as La Sagrera in Barcelona and many other neighborhoods formed in the Middle Ages around a large church.
