Castell de Gardeny

Gardeny Castle (Castell de Gardeny) is a 12th-century Romanesque fort built by the Knights Templar at Lleida. Located on a neighbouring hill, just over a mile away, from Lleida's main fortress, the Castle of La Suda, Gardeny defended the only accessible side of that castle. Although by the 20th century, the only buildings left standing were the palace and the church of Santa María de Gardeny, at right angles to each other, the castle grounds originally had several other buildings that were destroyed during the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. Archaeological studies from 2005 show that the palace and church were originally constructed as two separate buildings, later joined by a corridor or sacristy.

François Collignon's contemporary (after 1647 but before 1687) middle oblique view of the start of the siege of Lleida (1647) shows, among other details, the location of Gardeny in relation to the citadel—containing Lleida's principal castle, the old cathedral and the bishop's palace—within the city walls.

In the 19th century, at the time of Suchet's siege of the Lleida and its two castles, La Suda and Gardeny, the area also had the two strong fortifications of San Fernando and Pilar.

Text adapted from “Gardeny Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castell de Gardeny ranks #3,688 of 5,479 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #157 of the 230 mapped in Spain. Founded 1200, it is older than 81% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 267 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗