The fortress of Guardiola houses a chain of walls and towers looking down upon the river Llobregat. Sitting atop and down the slopes of a hill, they were built as a strategically vital defensive structure, first mentioned in written records in 939. However, the western tower is the best-preserved, with a central bridge and semicircular arches suggesting a Romanesque origin. Though the castle complex shows the foundations of other buildings, only the tower of Guardiola was built at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, reusing part of the stones of a previous tower.
Inside the castle, debris and vegetation make it difficult to discern the castle's perimeter. The eastern slope was the least steep and had to be fortified. At the mid-slope, there remain vestiges of an initial fortified enclosure that likely included a few houses, possibly emerging at the beginning of the 12th century, also documented in 1279 and 1327 where it is mentioned that there were nine hearths. Near the summit, a new construction with two circular towers and defended by another wall was created.
The western tower has a bridge alongside it spanning the Llobregat river, providing communication with other medieval settlements along the river.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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