Medieval Route

A journey into the past, historical Vilafranca

During the second half of the 12th century, the situation of Vilafranca as a road that linked Christian and Moorish lands was decisive for its development. An era where the coincidence of religious celebrations with fairs and markets as inseparable activities and the royal graning of notarial rights led to the Church of Vilafranca exercising notable economic and legal power.

Two of the buildings from this era with the most historical weight are the Royal Palace, where the king Pere III the Great, the Palau Baltà, which tradition says was the setting for the signing of the Capitulation of Vilafranca in 1461, one of the triggers of the civil war that saw the crown and the Generalitat clash in the 15th century.

 

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Història i Patrimoni

Palau Reial

The Palau Reial was built during the kingdom of Peter III the Great, between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The main facade consists of two stone buildings of different height, one is a tower with a plain top and the second one has a barbican made of wood.
Throughout the twentieth century, the building was transformed, enlarged and restored, with the intention of adapting it to the needs of the present VINSEUM Wine Culture Museum of Catalonia.

Palau Baltà

The Palau Baltà is an old gothic house designed by Francesc Babau in 1308, transformed in 1522. The building follows the structure of Gothic houses: it has a central courtyard acting as a distribution center leading to the rooms, a characteristic staircase, currently covered, and a gallery of pointed arches.

In 1899 the architect August Font, from Vilafranca, restored the Palace and introduced new elements into the building. A good example of it is the tribune of the main facade.

 

 

Church of Santa Maria

From Romanesque to Gothic

The Church of Santa Maria was the first parish church in Catalonia built in the Gothic style and it follows the construction patterns of the Catalan single-nave churches: roof with ribbed vaults, but with a large five-section nave with five side chapels separated by exceptionally thick buttresses. It is a Gothic building constructed on an old Romanesque chapel. The main façade was begun in the 15th century following Gothic lines, but it has suffered different interventions over the course of its history, the most recent of which took place at the start of the 20th century. 

Casa de la Vila

Un edifici més enllà del modernisme.

Santiago Güell i Grau.

Edifici públic d'origen medieval, que consta de dos pisos i golfes. La façana va ser remodelada l'any 1912 i ordenada asimètricament amb elements florals modernistes. Els balcons presenten i fanals balustrades de peu de llums rodons. 

L'origen de l'edifici de l'actual Casa de la Vila és un palau gòtic civil del segle XIV, probablement propietat de Bernat Pellicer (esmentat en les cròniques de la conselleria de Jaume II). 

Claustre de Sant Francesc

Tranquil·litat i història es donen de la mà en aquest espai.

El claustre de Sant Francesc és la única part que s'ha conservat de l'església del l'antic convent dels franciscans, un sobri edifici gòtic de finals del segle XIII d'un gran valor arquitectònic, artístic i històric, que esdevingué el panteó de nobles il·lustres de Vilafranca i del Penedès.