Fondarella

Fondarella is a municipality in the Pla d'Urgell region. The name Fondarella comes from the Arabic word funduq, which means alfondec, inn. Hence, the name by which Fondarella was known until modern times was Alfondarella.

The town of Fondarella stands at an altitude of 243 m, in the northern sector of the term, above the railway line and the road. The old town is located around the parish church of Santa Maria, a building of Romanesque origin renovated in the 15th century, with a simple façade with a voussoir portal and a wall bell tower with three openings, within a line reminiscent of that of the Alamús.

From its reconquest until the 17th century, Fondarella passed through many hands: Los Anglesola and in the fire of 1365-70 it is said that the town belongs to G. Molinero and that it had 39 fires, which means around 200 inhabitants. In the 17th century it already belonged to the chapter of Lleida, which was what the mayor appointed. Fondarella rigorously suffered the Reapers' War and the various pests and diseases. He has news of the plague of 1793 and that of 1803, they took the vow in San Sebastián and built the hermitage. The town combines life between agriculture and industry.

The old mansion of the town's lords stands out, now for private use. The population has grown towards the railway and the road and forms in a small sector almost an urban continuum with the city of Mollerussa, in the area where some of the industries are located. On the outskirts is the votive chapel of Sant Sebastià, a small building with one nave.

PLACES OF INTEREST

Hermitage of San Sebastián

The origin of the hermitage could be found with the creation of the brotherhoods of San Sebastián and the Virgen del Rosario in 1749. The brotherhoods were mainly dedicated to celebrating events in honor of their patron and that is why they were also dedicated to collecting donations and alms to be able to celebrate them. The poverty of its construction, half stone and half rammed earth, suggests that it was built at a time when the inhabitants of the town, who were all members of the two brotherhoods, could not give enough money to build the hermitage.

Parish Church of Santa María

During the medieval and modern period the parish church was not only the religious building par excellence in which the religious habits of the population were produced, but also a true framework for social representation of the community of neighbors. It must be taken into account that most social events had the church as their setting: baptisms, communions, marriages... On the other hand, the town cemetery gathered around the parish building, thus collecting the historical consciousness of the community.

Old town

The oldest houses in the current old town of Fondarella date from the 17th and 18th centuries. They are located on Àngel Guimerà and Mayor streets. They have several ancestral houses, Cal Ros, Cal Renyer and next to Cal Combelles, where the lord's castle once stood.