An Ancient Church with a Hidden Past in Olèrdola, Spain

Situated outside the old high medieval city of Olèrdola, Santa Maria dels Albats is an ancient church included in the Inventory of the Architectural Heritage of Catalonia. It is mentioned in medieval texts as Santa Maria foris murum, and it served the entire population that inhabited the exterior of the walled enclosure. It was a sufragania of the first consecration of the church of Sant Miquel d'Olèrdola, made by Bishop Teodoric in 911. The last documented information is from the year 1511, in a pastoral visit that relates the sufraganies of Sant Miquel, the parish church. Currently, it is dedicated to Sant Cristòfol.

Santa Maria has a wide visual domain over the territory of the Penedes plain as well as the Garraf, controlling the passage from the coast to the interior on one side and the access to the fortified complex through the Seguera on the other. It was first identified as a tower or medieval castle by early scholars, but later it was identified with the church of Sant Pere from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

In October 2011, work was carried out for the restoration and conservation of the walls. In 2014, the ECLOC project (quadriennial projects 2014-2017 in archaeological and paleontological research, Generalitat de Catalunya) began the intervention in the high medieval suburb of the Pla dels Albats, focusing on the church and the necropolis. The church has a single-nave plant with a quadrangular apse. Of preromanic origin, it preserves the original plant without many external alterations, maintaining the door on the south side.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons