The Ruins of Santa Maria de Montessor

The ruins of Santa Maria de Montessor lie near the remains of the castle of the same name, at the Castellassos or Picons d'Os, where other remnants of medieval settlement can be found. The church was under the domain of the abbey of Àger. A document of donation shows that Guerau Ponç II de Cabrera and his wife ceded the church, among other properties and goods, to the said abbey. Subsequently, the belonging of the church of Montessor to the abbey of Àger was confirmed by a bull granted in 1179, in which all properties corresponding to the said cenobitic order were ratified. In modern times, Santa Maria de Montessor is related in the 1648 book of synodals of the arxiprestat d'Àger.

The church is a single-naved building, covered with a barrel vault, capped on the east by a semi-circular apse, of which only the lower rows remain. The entire western part where the door and a window are located has been looted and the exterior wall of the facade is missing. The walls show a very irregular masonry made up of alternating small stones and large unfinished stones, and in the interior, several rectangular niches are preserved, distributed very irregularly.

The rusticity of the construction does not allow for a clear affiliation within the architectural currents of its time, but the proportions seem to indicate a date advanced in the 12th century.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons