The Historic Centre

The Old Town of Cardona is a Cultural Asset of National Interest, in the category of historic group of buildings, since 1992. Its origins go back to the first half of the 11th century when a small outlying village was formed around the market that was held at the foot of the castle mount.

In the municipal charter, issued in 986 by the count Borrell II of Barcelona, already states to the inhabitants of the castle and township that “... you will, at all times, have clean trade, legal market and a single pure currency ...”. At that time, Cardona and its castle were a strategic enclave on the border with Al-Andalus, and a crossroads that enjoyed an extraordinary system of freedoms as a centre of salt extraction and trade in a Western Europe in economic expansion. The combination of these factors explains the development of this outlying trading village, which became the centre of an important market and meeting point for travellers (merchants, pilgrims, and so on) who arrived from the Pyrenees and Southern France.