Castle of Sitges
The Castle of Sitges (Castell de les Sitges) is a castle of Romanesque and Gothic style, in the municipality of Torrefeta and Florejacs, in La Segarra. It is a monument declared Cultural Asset of National Interest.
In the 2010s, for the first time in the ten centuries of its history, the castle is regularly open to the public, with the aim of becoming a promotion center for cultural, recreational and social events.
Its strategic situation, dominating the Llobregós valley, made it the protagonist of the Christian struggles in the Early Middle Ages during their slow progress towards the lands of Muslim Spain. The castle of Sitges is documented as a castrum of Ciges in 1116 when Pedro Ponç, before going to the Holy Sepulchre, left it in his will, to his son Arnau. In 1100 the castle is referred to as the next castrum Floriaci (castle of Florejacs) in a document of donation to the canonical of Urgell, by Pere Ponç, vizconde of Cabrera and Arnau’s son in law. Its history is to a certain extent parallel to that of the Florejacs castle, as it also successively passed in to the dominion of the Alemany de Cervelló, then lords of Guimerà, at the end of the thirteenth century, and finally to the Ribera. The dominion was confiscated from Ribera by the King Philip V of Spain, at the end of the War of Succession, for declaring support to Charles VI.
Since then, the castle has remained in the hands of the same family lineage, although under different titles. Thus, families like the Alemany of Cervelló, the Josa, the Ribera, the Agulló of Pinós, and later the Ribera. After the War of Succession, the fortress, as an integral part of the barony of Florejacs, was confiscated, but it returned to the Ribera in 1725. In the middle of the 18th century it belonged to the Marquess of Gironella, who maintained the jurisdiction until the end of the Old Regime.
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