activities

Throughout the guided tour of the site, we consider the political climate at the time when the castle was built: the conflict between the Carolingian empire and the Muslim empire (al-Andalus). From the top of the keep, the situation of Catalunya Central and Cardona as a military buffer zone (the Hispanic Marches) can be clearly understood, and the physical elements that define it seen (the Cardener River, the Pyrenees and the lands in the south).

Pupils will come to understand what a castle is, what its basic structural components are, who lived there and the nature of the social estates in the Middle Ages, the nobility, the clergy and the general populace. They will also learn about those aspects each social class represented – power, worship and labour – and the relationships between these groups within the castle complex. The educational tour reveals who the rich and powerful lords of Cardona were: what they were like, where and how they lived, what they did and how they succeeded in acquiring their remarkable financial power.

Pupils will learn to identify the basic structural elements of a castle, such as the keep, walls, residential buildings, services (water cisterns and troughs), common courtyards and the religious complex (cloister, fruit and vegetable gardens, communal refectory, the abbot’s palace and the church).

One of the highpoints of the educational tour takes place inside the magnificent Collegiate Church of Sant Vicenç de Cardona (11th century), regarded as one of the most important examples of Romanesque art in Europe. This educational activity is a performance mounted inside the church, entitled “The Construction of the Romanesque Church of Sant Vicenç de Cardona”, featuring five characters – Bremon, the Viscount of Cardona; Abbot Oliba; the fictitious Italian architect Joan Llombard; the peasant woman Martina; and the mayor of an invented town outside Cardona – all to be played by five pupils in appropriate costumes. This role play will show how the idea of building the Romanesque Church of Sant Vicenç in Cardona Castle came to be mooted, what the reasons behind it were and who was involved. The pupils will discover how the construction of the church came about and who the main figures responsible for it were. Using a scale model of the church, pupils will learn about its basic symbolism and the features that make it truly remarkable.

The tour is designed and adapted to match pupils’ curricular level.