Castell de Pontellà

En un regard

Le château en bref

At Ponteilla (Pontellà in Catalan), in the Roussillon some ten kilometres from Perpignan, remains survive of the walls of the fortified medieval village. The place is mentioned as early as 876. It was first under the counts of Cerdagne, then under those of Besalú. From the end of the 11th century onwards, the lordship mostly passed to the viscounts of Castellnou; it then changed hands several times before being held by the Ros family until the Revolution. The most visible remains lie near the church of Saint-Étienne: a curved stretch of wall about 25 m long, pierced by eleven blocked arrow slits, dated to the XIIe-XIIIe centuries. At the highest point of the village stands a massive structure with walls more than 2 m thick, which may correspond to the medieval castle or to a tower of the enceinte.