el Lloar: what to see, where to eat and wineries

El Lloar is one of the smallest and most authentic Priorat villages, with around 99 inhabitants, on the western side, amid DOQ Priorat vineyards. Its stone core has a natural balcony on Carrer de Sant Miquel —the "viewpoint of the Priorat"— and the el Tossalet viewpoint, overlooking the Montsant river valley, plus the church of Sant Miquel (1777), a neoclassical building with three naves, a choir and a dome, and a 1947 sculpture of the saint on its facade. A one-and-a-half-kilometre walk leads to the Rogerals caves, near Basseta Roja —natural rock shelters carved into red Triassic sandstone that have yielded prehistoric settlement remains— and several trails link to la Figuera and the surrounding vineyards.

Until the Peninsular War the village was administratively dependent on la Figuera, becoming an independent municipality at that time. Its economy has traditionally been based on viticulture —with a wine cooperative founded in 1930— and, to a lesser extent, olives and almonds. The festa major (patron-saint festival) is celebrated the first weekend of August, in honour of Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo de Guzmán).

Sources: ca.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · doqpriorat.org

Photo: Xavigivax (Taller de Heráldica y Vexilología in the Spanish Wikipedia ) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons