The 12th-century apse of Sant Joan de l'Avellanet

Sant Joan de l'Avellanet is a church in the municipality of Bagà (Berguedà), which was once an independent ecclesiastical parish. It is situated in a rural context, now dominated by a camp of the Generalitat de Catalunya where a fenced sports field stands right against the church walls. It is a small single-nave construction with a semicircular apse on the eastern side, built with regular rows of stone blocks.

The interior features a barrel vault in the nave and a quarter-sphere vault in the apse. Externally, the building has a two-sided roof with tiles. The entrance is a lowered semi-circular arch with ashlar in the middle of the north wall. Except for the windows on the short sides, there are no other openings in the north wall.

The apse dates to the 12th century, while the nave is a 14th-century reconstruction. In 1393, Berenguera, wife of Pere Avellanet, gave 3 sous to the parish for altar ornaments. During the late 14th century, the church suffered setbacks and might have collapsed; Pere Avellanet promised to give eighty florins when the church was finished. In his 1427 will, Pere Avellanet asked to be buried before the church door and requested that his heir build a sign of one quintar of wood there.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons