* The authors are part of the community of La Vanguardia readers
Marmellar is the easternmost town in the municipality of El Montmell and the Baix Penedès region. It has been in a dilapidated and uninhabited state since the 1950s. And from the abandoned town (which by the way celebrated the millennium of its foundation in 2023) you take a path in the middle of the mountain until you find a road that goes down to the Marmellar stream, in the area known as Les Encantades, which leaves us at the foot of the castle.
The fortress, the protagonist of this report in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos, is located in the middle of the valley of the Marmellar stream, a little away from the Penedès plain.
Within the fortified enclosure, the castle, a place of stately residence, and the church dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael, which appears attached to the castle walls, coexisted.
There is hardly any documentary news about this fortification, of Romanesque tradition. Its condition is dilapidated, but we can still see numerous loopholes, as well as its old structure. The materials used are ashlars of irregular shapes.
The castle itself, a place of stately habitation and a church coexisted in the enclosure made by the wall that surrounds the top of the hill. A nave, oriented from north to south, with a trapezoidal plan about 18 m long and about 6.7 m wide divided by three thin transverse walls.
The eastern wall is the best preserved. From its interior it is preserved at a height of about 7.5 m. Three different floors or floors are observed. The various windows are resolved on the outside with three stones, one on each side and the third acting as a lintel. Inside they end with a lowered arch.
We see several loopholes and eleven corbels in a row at the edge of the main and upper floors. The ashlars are of medium size, slightly squared.
After the castle was built, two lines of outer wall were made on the eastern side. The first wall has a thickness of 0.5 m and passed about 5.5 m from the eastern wall of the fortification to the north.
The second wall starts from the northwest corner of the first wall and connects with another wall that begins in the apse of the church. A 2 m wide portal opened in the second wall. Wide. The walls are crenellated and inside you can see the roundabout.
The first property reference corresponds to the year 1023 and is found in a sale made by the counts of Barcelona to Guillem Amat of Castellvell.
In the year 1041, Marmellar already appears as a castle, while in the 12th century the fortress belonged to the Banyeres lords.
In 1157, when Ponç de Banyeres died as a result of wounds, he left his daughter Guisla, married to Guillem de Santmartí, as universal heiress of the Marmellar castle, among others.
During the 12th century, the castle became dependent on the monastery of Santa Maria de Terrassa, also of the order of San Rufus, until in 1241 its prior transferred it to Guillem de Cadireta.
In the 13th century its possession changed hands, so that if in 1358 it belonged to the Anglesola family, according to a census carried out between 1365-70, which records the existence of nine fires; The lord at that time was Albert de Claramunt and a little later, in 1376, the castle of Marmellar, which had 15 fires, was the possession of Bertran de Gallifa. At the end of that century the castle was part of the lot that King Peter the Ceremonious granted to Bernat de Fortià, brother of Queen Sibil. that of Fortià, fourth wife of King Pedro. The term returned to the royal heritage after the death of Pedro III.
During the reign of John I (1387-1395) there are reports of hunts carried out by this king in the territories of the Marmellar castle. Later it belonged to the Boixadors and the Savallà. From the 15th century onwards, news about the castle hardly exists as it ceased to fulfill the mission for which it was created, the defense of the roads opened during the 11th century through the lands of Penedès to advance the border through the Muslim domains of Tarragona. .
The fortress wall, made of stone and lime, sits on a stone base and entire panels of it are preserved. Several loopholes open along the wall, along with eleven corbels in a row arranged along the main and upper floors.
The church of Sant Miquel of the Marmellar castle is located inside the fort. It is a Romanesque construction from the 11th century that for a time served as a defensive function: while the nave served as a wall, its raised apse was used as a defense tower.
In 1148, the bishop of Barcelona, ??Guillem de Torroja, donated the church of the castle of Marmellar to the community of Saint Rufus of Avignon and to the abbot of the same place, Nicolau, together with his parish, the cemetery, the tithes, the firstfruits, the offerings and possessions, so that a convent of religious canons could be established there, according to the rule of Saint Augustine.
Sant Miquel was parish until 1377, when the cult passed to the old suffragan of Pla de Manlleu. Since 1600, the church of Marmellar was suffragan of Sant Jaume dels Domenys.
The church is a work from the 11th and 12th centuries, fully integrated into Lombard forms. It is a rectangular building that has a nave covered with a barrel vault (which still preserves the mold of the original framing used during its construction).
In the center of the nave, there is a semicircular transverse arch with an impost and a very thick former arch, also semicircular, that connects the nave with the chapel added later, in which a half-destroyed opening appears.
Finally, the head, which is accessed through a semicircular triumphal arch, is covered with the usual oven vault. Of the bell tower, as well as of the roof, there is no remains.
The apse, semicircular and slightly narrower than the nave, has three semicircular windows with double openings to the outside. Its upper part appears decorated with Lombard sashes and series of three blind arches between them.
To the south, a rectangular side chapel was added to the apse, which was also covered with a barrel vault. The entrance, much renovated, is located on the west façade, which appears pierced by a cruciform window.
Nowadays, practically everything has disappeared and only remains of stone blocks, voussoirs and some fragments of wall remain.
But the most interesting thing about the church of Sant Miquel de Marmellar is found inside, in the pictorial decoration, the fresco, located in the apse and in the triumphal arch.
The paintings date from the 11th century, specifically, between the years 1040 and 1050, and are contemporary with the Romanesque architecture of the complex.
The set was transferred in 1962 to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) Barcelona, ??where they were restored, and can currently be seen and appreciated perfectly in this museum. However, in Marmellar you can still see some remains of polychrome, reddish in color, on the intrados of the windows and in the joints of the voussoirs, probably with the intention of simulating a regular rigging.
Due to its poor state of conservation even before the transfer, reading it is difficult. In the apse semicircle, specifically in the center of its vaulted cover, a standing man with a beard and long hair, dressed to the feet, with his arms open and raised in a prayerful attitude, is represented within a large irregular circle.
He blesses with his right hand while with his left he appears to be holding a book. The bottom of this circular space was covered with stars, as can still be seen at the bottom.
To the right of the central figure appears a figure, barely visible, who appears to be equipped with two or three pairs of wings, the middle ones very short, and covered with long clothing.
Between these two figures, a weighted cross with a foot is inscribed within a haloed background. In the entire central part of the apse, from side to side, between the large upper circle and the three openings, there appears a whole series of characters, ten or eleven, who, as if it were a procession, walk in procession, from right to left. .
Among the characters there are men and women mixed, shod and dressed in tunics, who seem to have their heads covered, as well as different objects in their hands (such as a palm, a cross or other objects that are more difficult to interpret). The dimensions of these characters vary depending on the space in which they are represented (the largest ones are located on the right).
The procession seems to be heading towards a construction that is represented at the far left of the apse, which could perhaps represent a city. Between the openings, especially in the central space, remains of painting are preserved that seem to represent civil architecture (a villa).
Below these, and occupying the entire lower area of ??the apse, standing figures can be seen, looking forward, distributed in groups of two or three individuals and wearing clothing analogous to all the previous ones.
The free spaces were uniformly covered, at the bottom with a dark checkered pattern on a white background and at the top with a checkerboard shape. The triumphal arch appears covered in paintings up to the height of the openings.
In the middle of the arch, two discs with ribbons imitate a device of fabrics that would have been deployed covering the vault. On each side we find registers of superimposed scenes separated by chromatic bands decorated with schematized plant motifs, in the form of small opposing spirals.
The upper register is practically identical on both sides. Four characters in a frontal position with spread wings, but with their feet tilted, some crossing their arms over their chests and others raising them in a prayer position.
Alternatively, each large individual is represented with a small one arranged at his side. The clothes of these characters, which reach to the feet, are richly decorated with geometric zigzag motifs, stars or simple parallel lines.
In the southern register, a bearded man and a woman, dressed differently from those previously described and with their arms crossed in front of their chest, appear on either side of a six-branched tree.
On the left, another smaller character appears to be carrying a cane in his hand and is walking towards the characters before him, dressed in a suit decorated with small stars. Behind him, a monumental weighted cross appears in the background.
In the lower part of the north side three other individuals are represented, and in the same attitude, although in this case of the same dimensions; However, the character on the right seems to acquire greater relevance, due to his white clothing decorated with red motifs and, above all, for having his head covered with a dark veil, also bordered in red. The rest of the characters wear a very complex outfit, where black and red tones predominate.
On the extrados of the triumphal arch the decoration is distributed in the four superimposed bands ornamented with highly stylized plant motifs, in the form of spirals and foliage, in ocher, gray and different greenish tones.
Iconographically, it is very difficult to determine the identity of the characters represented, both due to the type of painting and the state of conservation they present.
On the other hand, the broad lines of the iconographic program seem very coherent, since stories of Salvation are represented, presided over, in the apse area, by the Christ of the Ascension, represented within a circular mandorla, accompanied by an archangel.
Below them, the characters in procession following a classic iconographic formula of a funeral procession and who seem to carry with them the instruments of passion. In the lower part of the apse, under the openings, there are a series of rigid figures, in a frontal position, probably the Virgin, the Apostles and the Saints.
In the vault, in the first two registers, the angels and seraphim appear, forming the heavenly court of Christ. In the lower right register the Expulsion from Paradise is represented, with Adam and Eve located on each side of the tree, accompanied by an angel, as narrated in the sacred writings of the Old Testament. The cross appears in the background, a symbol of the promised redemption following the punishment of the first fathers of Humanity. On the left side of the triumphal arch the three characters could represent the Annunciation, or the Visitation.
As a whole, the iconographic program of the Marmellar apse appears centered on the idea of ??Redemption and in the general framework of an iconography of Salvation. The Ascension of Jesus towards the celestial kingdom, which we see represented by the angels and seraphim, at the top of the triumphal arch, represents his victory over death through the Resurrection, but above all it announces his return at the end of time, of the great Last Judgment. Stylistically, form predominates over line.
The characters are treated in a simple and disproportionate way, they are rigid and frontal, with large off-center eyes, outlined noses, very large mouths, disproportionate hands and feet, etc. The treatment of the clothing has been resolved with large colored surfaces, saving anatomical treatment.
The clothing appears decorated with geometric motifs, very original and varied, and the vegetal decoration of the border and arches is also very interesting.
The paintings date from the 11th century, specifically between the years 1040 and 1050, and are contemporary with the Romanesque architecture of the complex. Currently, the building is abandoned and in a dilapidated state, despite the restoration works carried out, and the castle has been deteriorating to this day.