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MUR CASTLE AND ITS SPATIAL ORGANIZATION IN 10th-12th CENTURY (Pallars County-Catalonia)

Marta Sancho i Planas - Universitat de Barcelona - Grup de Recerca d'ArqueologiaMedieval i Postmedieval
INTRODUCTION: HISTORY CONTEXT
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Map of the border between al-Andalus and the Catalan counties and the situation of the castle of Mur

The castle of Mur is located in the mountain range of el Montsec in the The castle of Mur is located in the mountain range of el Montsec in the Pre-Pyrenees, in the present region of el Pallars Jussą (province of Lleida). This range of mountains has always been considered as the border that separates the Mediterranean plains of the south and the Pyrenean Mountains of the north.

 

 

The castle of Mur is part of the fortification process of the border lands between al-Andalus and the Catalan counties. This process was made in parallel to the repopulation effort produced during the 9th-11th centuries in this zone of Catalonia.

 

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Map of the limits of the castle of Mur with its principal fortresses (11th Century)

Therefore this castle would work not only as a political element to structure the territory, but also as a defensive point of the population.

The limits of the castle of Mur are perfectly defined in the betrothal document of Valenēa, Arnau Mir Tost’s daughter, in 1056. In this document are specified all the things she received because of her marriage to Ramon IV, the count of Pallars Jussą.

 

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Map of acumulative visibility since Mur and the other secundary castles

(+ red > blue > green > yellow -)

During the 10th and 11th centuries, Mur is the centre of a territory situated at the first line of the border with the Islam. This situation compels to design some measures of protection like a network of castles and watchtowers with a visual communication between them. This kind of network allows the communication between distant zones and in all directions –to the north with the county of el Pallars Sobirą, to the east with the county of Urgell and to the west with the Aragon kingdom-. This network will be gradually extended to the south as new territories are conquered to the Islam.

There is a great variety of castles inside the limits of Mur and almost all the inhabited settlements have some defensive system.