The Romanesque ruins of Sant Joan de Torreblanca

The ruins of Sant Joan Baptista de Torreblanca, situated on the southern side of the hill at the top of which are the remains of the castle of Torreblanca, are the remains of a Romanesque church from Ponts. This church was likely the original parish of Torreblanca. It may have been known as Sant Joan de Castelló.

The building is in a state of progressive ruin but still allows for the distinction of its architectural characteristics. The structure corresponds to a single-nave building, covered with a semicircular-profile barrel vault reinforced by four toral arches and a semicircular apse at the east. The vault is preserved only in the eastern third of the nave, which was divided in its half by a wall closing the western half. The toral arches are supported not by attached pilasters but by real circular columns, integrated by two or three drums. They arise from a truncated conical base with simple structure capitals featuring incised decoration in low relief.

The opening of the apse to the nave is resolved with a presbyterial arch formed by a double toral arch. Between the two columns that support it, a small room with a niche opens, which could be the base of a disappeared campanar prismàtic de torre. The walls between columns are hollowed by former arches, except for the eastern end where there is a door with a lintel, and to the north, where a semicircular apse opens, forming an asymmetrical triabsidal headpiece.

The construction masonry is made of well-cut stones, arranged in very uniform and regular rows. The apse has three windows with double esquequadra, perfectly integrated into the apsidal decoration, formed by arcuacions in series of two between buttresses. Also, in the north side of the church, between the two columns that support the double toral arch of the passage to the apse, a small rectangular room opens, covered with a barrel vault and with a rectangular niche in the eastern wall. Its use is unknown.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons