El Pont de Vilomara i Rocafort

The Pont de Vilomara i Rocafort is located in Barcelona, ​​?? in the region of Bages (in the heart of Catalonia) and only 5 kilometers from the regional capital, Manresa.

The municipality is formed by the union of two ancient towns. Rocafort of the Bages and El Pont de Vilomara In 1994 was added to the municipality Paradise Marquet sector which until then had been part of the municipality of Mura.

The municipality is among the stream of Mura, also called Medlar, and the Llobregat river. The Mura to rroyo delimits the term with those of Sant Vicenc de Castellet, Mura and Talamanca and the Llobregat river delimits with Manresa.

The Pont de Vilomara is located in the lower part of the municipality, at a height of 202 meters above sea level. Instead Rocafort de Bages is in the higher altitude of the term, at an altitude of 421 meters to the sea. Between the two villages, there is a separation of 7 km covered by a local road that joins permanently. There are parts of the municipality exceeding 600 meters above sea level. Montgròs the hill is considered the main orographic reference, is about 578 meters high.

Prior to modern times, the name had been simply Rocafort and more officially Rocafort of the Bages. No Vilomara on the place name as it was a small and distant suburb. From 1917 the name changed to Rocafort and Vilomara. Subsequently, in 1933, the name changed Rocafort and El Pont de Vilomara. The current name of the municipality was approved by the Generalitat of Catalonia on 27 May 1982. the reason for the change was the transfer of the city council and population growth in every way the nucleus of El Pont de Vilomara.

The name Vilomara is an evolution of the old name, Villa Amara a alodia domains within the term and the Castle of Rocafort.

Popularly it is believed that the reason for the name is that the territory Rocafort is located in the heart of Rocafort is a rocky massif and surrounded by landscapes with much stone and little land. Subsequent studies claim that the origin of Rocafort is given by the existence of the castle. Roc call comes in a castle chess game, in which there is a piece equivalent to the fortress, formerly called stones and now towers. In the shield of the gentlemen of Rocafort, and later in the Sitjar, who were also lords of Rocafort, they are represented three rocks, as in the present municipal shield. It is for this reason that the name has its origin in the existence of its castle or rock, which once was extended or fortified, so to Roc (or Rock, as in Italian) is introduced strong, forming Rocafort.

The first bridge over the river Llobregat Vilomara existed since ancient times and was wooden, as demonstrated holes under the arch of the existing bridge. In Roman times, where the wooden bridge was the stone bridge, the "bridge of Villa Amara" following the road that went from built Bages to Barcino, through the mountain of San Lorenzo and the region of Vallés. Amara in Latin means submerged. In the V century, during the invasion of the Roman Empire, the royal road was probably one of the ways of penetration of the invaders.

the first reliable population data around the ninth century as a place near the bridge known. 983 place out Vilomara documented in a grant from the Romanesque chapel of Santa Magdalena Plan, the newly consecrated monastery of Sant Benet. From that year until 1600, Vilomara be under its jurisdiction and shall pay a census.

A letter from King Jaume II, dated October 25, 1326, mentions that Pedro Sitjar, lord of the castle of Rocafort, destroyed and demolished a house and two mills that the monastery had the Llobregat River near the bridge Vilomara. 13 October 1330, Pedro Sitjar established Guillem Marquet, the post of Matadars, the two mills, one of cloths and other triguero, who was near the bridge Vilomara, within the terms of his castle of Rocafort.

The Black Death of 1348 wreaked havoc among the population, but was rebuilt in the following years. Continuous wars and epidemics of the centuries destabilize the population census.

In 1623, Can Vilomara (the house next to the bridge) is inhabited by the Jesuits and depend until 1767 the College of San Ignacio and Vilomara go to live in Manresa, starting to make Mercers the textile family.

The core of the Pont de Vilomara, current head of the municipality, was born near the medieval bridge, which was built on the high road. At the end of the nineteenth century several textile factories that made ​​larger population, first from the region and after immigrations from the rest of Spain they are built. As in the rest of watered by the Llobregat populations, these factories suffered frequent crises up to close during the 80s and 90s of the twentieth century. Recently, the local industry has been extended with a remarkable recovery centers and recycling of batteries, lamps and household appliances, which have made fruitful a new industrial estate that is revitalizing the local economy.