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Dominating farmland, green forests and the Gavarresa stream, from the top of a hill of more than 500 meters, emerges a farmhouse with the soul of a castle, named Tornamira, which abandoned its defensive function centuries ago, although it still retains the soul of his past.
Today it is restored and its most emblematic image can be obtained from the Roman ruins of Puig Ciutat, another great focus of cultural interest, from where you can obtain beautiful photographic perspectives, as we see in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos.
As detailed in the Cultural Heritage Maps of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, ??”the castle of Tornamira is located at the highest point of a hill located to the southeast of the Torre d’Oristà core, just west of the Gavarresa stream in the meander that surrounds Puig Ciutat”.
It is an old castle that was converted into a farmhouse when it lost its defensive meaning and, therefore, “is made up of a complex floor plan since it has been adapted to the different needs of its inhabitants over time.”
Of the current plan, it is worth highlighting, mainly, a circular tower and a rectangular room attached to the southwest part of the tower covered with a barrel vault.
The tower is a cylindrical construction with a circular plan with an external diameter of 6.50 meters and an internal diameter on the ground plane of 2.20 meters.
Of the exterior façades, currently plastered, “it is worth highlighting the loopholes open in different bands, highlighting the defensive complex as well as the main façade dominated by a semicircular voussoir arch portal; in the keystone of the voussoir is the inscription: AVE MARIA / JOSEP/ RETURN/ LOOK / 1763”.
The castle of Tornamira defended a part of the old castle of Oristà, which replaced it when it disappeared, breaking up into the castles of Olost, Tornamira, Toneu and Cirera, all included within the great terminus of the castle of Oristà.
The first documented news of the castle of Tornamira dates from the twelfth century in the testament of Ramon de Moncada drawn up on November 17, 1120, in which he bequeathed the castle of Tornamira to his son Ot de Montcada.
In 1666 the castle was already documented as a farmhouse of the parish of Sant Andreu d’Oristà.
