From hand to hand
According to the historians, the Castle of Montclar was, in the beginning, in the hands of the Arabs. After that, during the Reconquest, Arnau Mir De Tost conquered it.
There is a legend that says that the lord of Montclar, that Arnau Mir De Tost, was a man of weapons and not many words, with a tendency to imprison those who were on his way. In fact, once finished the reconquest of what today is the province of Lleida, his family became the main colonists of the lands snatched to the Muslims.The offspring laws of those times made the castle change owners, and passed to the dominion of the lords of Cabrera; the daughter of Arnau Mir married the viscount of Gerona and lord of Cabrera, Ponç I. Thus the Castle passes from hand to hand. The grandson of that marriage inherits the Castle along with the county of Urgell. From another marriage, something typical of the moment, the owner at that time, Ponç de Cabera, granted all his possessions -that were not just a few, if we are talking about a man that gathered his wealth from wars and marriages - to his son-in-law Gombau II de Ribelles. That was a good inheritance: Gombau II receives, besides the Castle of Montclar, the castles of Foradada, Artesa de Segre and Montsonís. | With the family of Ribelles, the lands of Montclar and Montsonís became and important fiefdom. That was the beginning of a glorious period, that can be summarized recounting that, from the year 1200 until today, only 5 families, with marital bindings between them, have been owners of the Castle of Montclar: The Ponç, the Cabreras, the Ribelles, and later the Despujols, and from 1986 until now, the De Miguels, the surname that comes from the lower Empordà, where they had other castles such as the Castle of Púbol (the De Miguels were the first Barons of Púbol) that later on belonged to Salvador Dalí. |
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Located on the highest part of the mountain range of Montclar, 500 metres of height, searching the best views of its 'lands', the Castle waves its flag on the top of the homage tower. That is the signal that it is inhabited. The De Miguel family, one of the most antique of Catalonia, is the owner.
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