The Pla d'Almatà

The Pla d´Almatà

The Pla d'Almatà is the largest Andalusian site preserved in Catalonia and one of the main ones in ancient Al-Andalus, the country founded by the Arabs on the Iberian Peninsula during the 8th and 15th centuries.

The archaeological remains of the Pla d'Almatà correspond to one of the neighborhoods of Madina Balaguer, an important city of new plant, perfectly planned, which was created from the tenth century.

The Pla d'Almatà was the original nucleus of the city and one of the main districts. It was surrounded by a wall, of which about 700 meters are preserved, built with sandstone ashlars at the base and a top wall lock made of brick formwork. At irregular intervals, 27 massive brick towers were built using the same technique.

The archaeological remains of the Pla d'Almatà are distributed around streets, which draw a regular and orderly city, with residential areas, industrial areas, places of worship and cemeteries.

The mosque was located where the church of the Saint Christ is today and was a fundamental building: it taught doctrine, administered justice and held large public meetings. Around this mosque was a large cemetery.

The Pla d'Almatà Archaeological Park corresponds to one of the residential areas of the neighborhood, where four houses and two sections of streets have been excavated and turned into a museum. Archaeological excavations have made it possible to recover an important collection of objects from everyday life that can be seen in the Museu de la Noguera.