* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
I have captured for Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia these perspectives of the exterior and interior of the Poblet monastery, which is located in a rural area past the current Espluga de Francolí road, in the region of Conca de Barberà.
It was decided to locate it in an isolated place with access to water to work the land and be self-sufficient. In fact, it is the only one of the monasteries on the Cistercian Route that remains isolated.
The monastery was founded by order of the Count of Barcelona Ramón Berenguer IV in the year 1150 and its construction began around the year 1163 by the master architect Arnau Bargués. Declared a World Heritage Site in 1991, it is currently inhabited by about 25 Benedictine monks.
Its walled exterior has four towers and the baroque doorway of the 17th century Church. On the right hand side is the 18th century Abbot’s Palace.
In Poblet we will find the Royal Pantheon, with a set of tombs of different kings of the Aragonese crown built between the 14th and 15th centuries.
