Santa Maria de Pineda Church

SANTA MARIA DE PINEDA CHURCH

Look what a beautiful church we have in Pineda, it’s called Santa Maria and to enjoy it as you see it now, it has had to endure more than four centuries of remodelling, that is, many many years. If you look at it carefully you will see that it has three naves, one central and two lateral, and what to say about the bell tower. Let’s see if you can guess how many sides or faces it has? Very well !! Yes, there are eight, that is, what is called an octagonal bell tower.

All constructions begin with a stone and the first that gave life to this church dates back to 1079 and was ruled by the lords of Montpalau. Then, of course, it was a small Romanesque temple because Pineda was not as we can see it now, far from it! The population was scattered and most of them lived on farmhouses with fields, well, as I was saying, at the beginning of the 16th century it was demolished to build the temple that you see now.

In times of pirates, yes, yes, pirates, it’s not a joke, in August 1545 Pineda was attacked by a group led by the Turkish corsair Dragut. In a short time they took over the town, looting and burning down many houses and also the church of Santa Maria, from where they stole everything that was valuable.

Look at the inscription above the front door. Do you know what it says? Well, I’ll help you a little bit because it’s hard to read: – “On August 1st, 1545, at the break of dawn, 11 Turkish galleys, that is, large ships, forced all the townspeople to the beach, burned the doors of the church and many houses and they killed and captivated 70 people going up to Can Palau. At noon, they boarded their ships and left. So, for protection, this church in Pineda was fortified“.

And that’s not all, at the beginning of the Civil War, which began in 1936, the temple caught fire again and it was not until 1948 that it was rebuilt, the bell tower was crowned and the bell was installed.

And to wrap it up, how many metres high would you say the church of Santa Maria is? Well, they are no more, no less than 34.60 metres.