Plank Road: Ebro Valley

We decided to take a day off from hiking today to explore the Ebro Valley. We drove north of Tortosa along the river, the highway passes over to one side and then back again. The landscape to the north is quite beautiful and there are small towns right along the river. There are a lot of grape vines and nut trees in this area.

We went as far as Miravet, which is a nice town with a Placa along the river, several people were out in the sun having drinks in the Placa. There is a Templar Castle on the hilltop above the town so we walked up to the castle. We got a pamphlet in English and took a tour around the castle.

The castle was originally built by the Moors in the 11th century. The Moors expanded the castle in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, likely in an effort to defend against the Catalan counts who wanted to dislodge them.

The Catalan feudal lords took Miravet from the Moors in 1151. Count Ramon Berenguer IV gave the castle and surrounding lands to the order of the Temple for their assistance in defeating the Moors.

The Templars transformed the castle into a fortress. When the Templars were outlawed, they held out at Miravet while under siege for a year and finally capitulated in 1308. There were a lot of storage rooms and cisterns to endure a siege.

The Ebro was a battleground of fierce fighting during the Spanish Civil War. The castle was occupied by the Nationalist (Francoist) troops, then dislodged by the Republicans and subsequently taken by the Nationalist forces again.

Castle wall with view of the river