Almenar

Almenar is located in the northernmost part of Segrià, bordering Noguera and Litera. It shares borders with the Segrià municipalities of Almacelles (SW), Alguaire (S) and Alfarràs (N); with Algerri (E) and Albesa (SE), both in Noguera; and with Albelda and Campell (W), in Litera.

The area comprises the town and municipal capital of Almenar, the hamlet of Bassa Nova, popularly called the Cafetín, and the old area of Santa María de Almenar (or the Tower of Santa María de Solsona ), where there was Almenara la Vella.

History of the municipality

It was the Almoravids who built the new town of Almenar, further north, presided over by the castle, of which the ruins still remain, dominating the site.

Almenara la Vella, with the lands irrigated by the irrigation ditch that descends from the Sas and goes to the Noguera Ribagorzana, was given to the prior of Santa Maria de Solsona, who repopulated the territory with some families from Solsonès (the place would last until the 18th century).

Of great interest is the charter of settlement granted by Ramon Berenguer IV to the new settlers of Almenar, published by Bofarull and more recently by Font i Rius, in which he granted (April 13, 1148) the ipsum castrum of Almenar to one hundred men from Balaguer, which included the town and the fortress of the Almoravids with its boundaries.

The count promised the settlers that the possessions and rights granted within the Usatges of Barcelona could not revert to any other lord of his domains, except for the appointment of castellan, which he made in the person of Pere Ramon d'Erill (a position that did not imply lordship), of the lineage of the lords of Saidí, who at this time played a decisive role in the wedding of the count and Peronella and therefore in the union of Aragon and Catalonia.

The church of Almenar was given in 1150 to the abbot of the collegiate church of Solsona (who already held allodial possession of the Tower of Santa María), and therefore it is not mentioned in the Ordinance of 1168 of the Bishopric of Lleida. A privilege granted by Ramon Berenguer IV himself, known as Pell d'Almenar, was added to the town charter in 1151.

Places of interest

• The Magic Park
• The Fossar
• Town House
• Tonot House Museum
• RING Square
• The Ice Well
• Pillar of the Xam
• Soldevila
• Flour mill
• Hermitage of San Sebastián
• The Castle of the Moors
• Tozal del Mexut
• The Raft
• The Cal Piqué mountain range