Poboleda: what to see, where to eat and wineries

Poboleda is a village in the north-west of the Priorat, on the Montsant side, on the right bank of the Siurana river and rising toward the Montsant massif, with the Nevera peak (682 m) as the highest point of the municipal term. It is a good base for exploring the Serra de Montsant Natural Park —cliffs, gully passes and rock shelters— and lies near the ruins of the Charterhouse of Scala Dei, the monastery that housed the Carthusian monks while the charterhouse itself was being built. The village, with 345 inhabitants, has the 18th-century church of Sant Pere, known as the "cathedral of the Priorat" for its size, and the Casa dels Frares, now the town hall. By the river, west of the village, stand the remains of the Molí dels Frares (or Molí Draper), formerly owned by the Scala Dei monastery for the monks' wool business.

A DOQ Priorat wine village, it has five family-run wineries open to visitors (Burgos-Porta, Crivellé i Valls, Mussons, Mas Doix and Terres de Vidalba). Its signature festival is the old-style wine and harvest festival (Festa del Vi i de la Verema a l'antiga), held on the second or third Saturday of September, with trips to the vineyards and winery visits; the village also celebrates the Sant Domènec festival (4-5 August) and Our Lady of August (15-16 August), with a procession to the Mare de Déu de l'Assumpta chapel. The GR-174 long-distance trail (Sender del Priorat) crosses the municipality. The Jesuit priest and meteorologist Benet Viñes i Martorell (1837-1893), a pioneer of hurricane forecasting from Havana, was born in the village.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · turismepriorat.org · ca.wikipedia.org

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0