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“God forbid,” was the war cry of the First Crusade of Christendom in 1069. From this cry and this crusade was born the religious and military order of the Temple: the knight-monks who have generated so much literature and history.

Two religious military orders, first the Templars and then the Hospitallers, dominated for six centuries the history of the lands surrounding the “Torre del Codina”.

Granyena Castle was the first settlement of the “Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” in Catalonia, for the donation made to them in 1131 by the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer III, where they established the Order of the Templars of Granyena.

In 1181 King Alfonso the Troubadour gave them the town of Montornés and Mas de Bondia, and in 1269 the economic power of the Order of Granyena allowed them to buy from Saura de Ponts, Lady of Talladell, the Castle and the whole district of Talladell “with all the inhabitants, terms and rights”. Such was the power of the order that during the Middle Ages, the best lands in the district of Tàrrega were their property. The whole plain of the Ondara within the municipality of Tàrrega was called “La Plana de Granyena”.

The Temple Order functioned as a multinational today. To achieve their founding goal, which was the conquest of the Temple and the Holy Places of Jerusalem, they established an international network of branches, called “Orders,” linked to property, business, and jurisdictions that dominated economic, financial, and commercial transactions. as well as the technology, the knowledge, the transport, and in addition they counted on a fixed armed army and a powerful marine fleet.

The nobility of the Middle Ages and the traditional church began to fear the wealth and power of order. In 1312 the pope of Rome dissolved the order and its main leaders were imprisoned.

The goods and property of the Templars passed to other religious orders, and in the case of the Order of Granyena, it was succeeded by the Military Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem known as the Hospitallers.

According to the chronicles, when in 1660, the Grand Prior of the Order visited the order of Granyena, in “lo Talladell” the criminal jurisdiction belonged to the town of Tàrrega and the order had a demolished castle that “vuy it serves as a corral ”.

The influence of the Order of Hospitallers declined when Napoleon occupied and conquered the island of Malta in 1798. In our country, the Confiscation of Religious Property Act of the 1830s meant that religious goods and property passed into private hands.

From this short history of Templars and Hospitallers, we can take advantage of it to get to know these lands full of legend and visit places in La Segarra and Urgell that are as interesting as Mas de Bondia, Granyena, Montornès, Verdú, l’Ametlla de Segarra, Guimerà or Vallfogona de Riucorb.

Here you can visit a virtual view of this beautiful, unique and unknown“Granyena Protected Natural Area”

Jaume Ramon Solé.

La Torre del Codina

January 25, 2020.