A quiet church in Martorell, the ancient Santa Margarida del Priorat de Sant Genís de Rocafort, has stood near the local cemetery. The building was constructed using the walls of a Visigothic church, although it was extended at both ends. It serves as a simpler, slightly modified version of the model used for the priorate of Sant Genís.
The church features a single nave with a rectangular plan and no distinct apse. Its interior walls are reinforced by attached pillars, which allow for several shallow side chapels. The western entrance is formed by two arches in degradation with two imposts on each side. The masonry consists of well-cut stones arranged in regular rows. The windows are double-mullioned, and the eastern window features a monolithic screw with Visigothic-era ornamentation on the interior.
Historical records of the priorate of Sant Genís de Rocafort date back to 1042, when Bonfill Guillem and his wife Sicardis donated houses and lands to Sant Genís. The monks later founded Santa Margarida as a dependent parish, with the first mention of the church appearing in 1143. It was documented again in 1300 in the testament of Antic Domènec. The church was affected by an earthquake in 1448 and remained unreconstructed until its secularization in 1534.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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