Discover Tiurana: Chapels, Nature and Trails

In Tiurana, the current guided tours “Monumental Tiurana” lead to relocated elements from the vanished old village and to the Romanesque chapel of Mare de Déu de Solés with Baroque wall paintings.

Culture and History

The Romanesque chapel of Sant Ermengol dates from the 11th century. The relocated façade of the parish church of Sant Pere Apòstol was restored in 1980 and has a semicircular-arched portal and a central bull’s-eye window. Among Tiurana’s relocated monuments is a medieval sarcophagus dating from the 13th or 14th century.

Nature

Tiurana’s Botanical Garden contains more than 80 special species of trees, shrubs and plants. During a walk, visitors can observe birds, butterflies, insects, bumblebees and bees; they can also smell aromatic plants. The Botanical Garden showcases Col de Tiurana, Bitxo de Tiurana, as well as the bean varieties formerly grown there, mongeta d'emparrar and mongeta de ganxet.

The Rialb Reservoir was created by a dam located between the municipalities of Tiurana and La Baronia de Rialb. The former settlement of Tiurana was completely submerged beneath the waters of the Rialb Reservoir; in 2007, the new town re-emerged.

Hiking and Cycling

The Tiuranatura routes are geolocated and can be followed via Wikiloc or downloaded as GPX tracks. The Tiuranatura hiking routes are intended for discovering wild plants, wildlife and the waters of the Rialb Reservoir. They lead to Romanesque chapels, the Sant Sebastià wayside oratory and remains from the Spanish Civil War.

Tiurana’s hiking routes include short steep sections and genuine trialera sections, some of which are shared by mountain bikes and motorbikes. The RS3 Ruta de les trialeres route includes a descent on the Trialera de la Drecera and an ascent on the Trialera de Solés. The Trialera de Solés is an old path that connected the former village of Tiurana with the chapel of Mare de Déu de Solés.

The RS2 Ruta del romaní route leads to the El Foc del Pelegrí sculpture and then back to Tiurana. The Rialb BTT Tour starts and ends in Tiurana. It runs along numerous paths and tracks with views of the Rialb Reservoir and the mountain ranges around the northeast of Noguera and the south of Alt Urgell. The zip line over the Rialb Reservoir is approximately one kilometre long, has a difference in elevation of around 100 metres and runs 30 metres above the reservoir.

Events and Places

The Astronòmic Starlight Tiurana Festival offers a multi-day astronomy programme with solar and night-sky observations, guided tours, photography workshops, a mobile planetarium and family workshops. The Festival de Contes features storytelling performances in the streets and at emblematic locations in Tiurana; it is scheduled for the third weekend in August or, if August has five weekends, the fourth.

At the Itinera Festival, concerts are scheduled on Saturdays in July on Tiurana’s municipal stage; dinner on the terrace of Gastrobar Solés is available as an option. El Foc del Pelegrí is a sculpture created to convey to visitors the human warmth of the people of Tiurana. The Museu dels Antics Oficis is an open-air area with tools formerly used by ancestors who lived in rural areas and worked in agriculture.

Further destinations: Sanaüja, Vilagrassa, Fórnols, Sensui, Santa Maria de Meià, Lleida, Llarvén and Pinell De Solsonès.

To the higher-level travel overview: Lleida.