LA VILA D'ARGENÇOLA

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Updated: 01/14/2024

Carretera BP-4313 Km 52,4
08251 Castellnou de Bages
Barcelona

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Contact

Rosa Mª Escarpenter Ferrán

escarpenterrosa@gmail.com

(+34) 659 514 212 / (+34) 937 433 242

Location: (GPS latitude: 41.859082 longitude: 1.793625) 1 hour-drive from Barcelona city, near Montserrat, at 403m above sea level, in the north of Castellnou de Bages town (Barcelona), at the foot of the BP-4313 road between Súria and Balsareny.

If something characterizes La Vila d'Argençola is the variety of attractions it has.

It is a forest estate (Mediterranean forest: pine, oak, holm oak, strawberry tree, juniper, rosemary scrub, thyme, mints, ...) and agricultural land with a large manor house, the result of successive extensions since its original construction (probably from the end of the tenth century), the most important in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.

The main house, reformed a the beginnings of the XX century, is a modernist house with stained-glass windows of Catalan workshops reproducing figurative scenes and geometric and agricultural motifs, the peculiar German stained-glass (1921), the balconies and windows with arches of various shapes and other modernist ornaments on the roofs. Physical memory of the eighteenth-century farmhouse is the stone stairway access interrupted at the centre by a rectangular block, at the end of which three semi-circular arches are placed towards the original door with stone jambs and lintel. The portal houses a wine press and adorning the outer side, next to the garage doors, stand out a press plate, a large stone tub and the counterweight of a torcular. All the openings of the ground floor are arched and outlined with outcoming solid brick painted reddish. Crowning this volume at the level of the first floor, a large passable terrace of some 300m2 of variable widths offers its greatest exposure to the south. This and the upper floor show geminated windows of neo-Gothic style. The structure is finished off with battlements and a cornice of vitrified tiles.

The distribution of the original eighteenth-century cellars is dominated by the need for storage and aging of wine, so in its galleries wineries, vats and garages are installed.

Around the large house, buildings of variable dimensions are organized, highlighting the impressive building of the old sheep shed, as well as the threshing area, wine underground storage tubs, a bread oven, a pigsty with a dunghill, the chicken coop, the small rural school, the orchard terraces, natural springs sheds to supply drinking water to the house, the garden surrounding the cemetery, ... spaces that with the passage of time are adapting to new uses.

The lands, in the shelter of the farmhouse and the church and delimited by property-term crosses, offer corners with large riverside groves, tiered reservoirs and a natural landscape placid and spectacular at the same time.

The parish church of Santa Eulalia, located on a Romanesque hermitage, is equipped with a belfry, choir, altarpiece and a Romanesque baptismal font.

The so-called "Lakes de Argençola", within the property, have series of dams built along the river, a boat shed, a bridge to access the walks leading downstream, irrigation sheds, fountains and pigeon houses. The main dam, with an elevation of about five meters, houses a recreational lake, and was built -legend says- using ashlars from a forgotten medieval castle. Crossing the bridge, the remains of a rock winepress have been discovered.

In addition, La Vila is located at the heart of the "UNESCO World Geopark of Central Catalonia". The sea that existed here more than forty million years ago brings a distinctive character to the landscape, for centuries having lent grey stone -filled up with fossilized flora and fauna- to the construction of agricultural structures in dry stone (without mortar) such as walls of the terraces for the cultivation of grapevine, vineyard huts, stairs and walls of delimitation of ways and of reinforcement of the channel of the river.

Recently, the descendants of Manuel SALADRIGAS FREIXA have transformed the eighteenth-century floor into fully equipped rural lodgings in which echoes of the past still remain. Additionally, outdoor spaces have been set aside for recreation, such as the barbecue, the gazebo and the chill-out areas.

The audiovisual sector chose our stages for the filming of the musical video clip "Yo te daré" by pop singer Rosario FLORES and for photographic illustration of a fashion brochure, so we are convinced that La Vila offers exclusive stages of inspiration to host new film and advertising projects. We wait for you!