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What if we could touch the moon? The optical effect and perspective of this photograph in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos of the Minyona tower of the Cardona castle, in Bages, gives us the impression of being able to catch it with our hand.
Cardona Castle is probably the most important medieval fortress in Catalonia. It is located on a hill that overlooks the salt valley and the Cardener valley, as can be seen in the images, which attest to its strategic location.
It was built in the year 886 by Wifredo el Velloso. Romanesque and Gothic in style, it includes the so-called Sala Daurada and the Sala dels Entresòls.
Its jewel is the Minyona tower, which is located at the highest point of the mountain. Its original structure corresponded to a cylindrical tower of about 10.5 meters in diameter by 25 meters in height, comparable to those of the primitive castles built in Catalonia in the 10th-11th centuries as watchtowers for surveillance and control of the territory, in addition to towers representing the lord’s jurisdiction.
Its current appearance, only 12.5 meters high, is the result of the reforms carried out between 1794 and 1810 to prevent it from serving as a firing reference for artillery in the event of a siege.
It owes its nickname to an 18th century legend that tells of the love of one of the viscounts’ daughters, Minyona, with a Muslim leader.
