Tivissa

Tivissa is a municipality in the comarca of Ribera d'Ebre, Catalonia, Spain. As well as the village of Tivissa itself, it contains the smaller village of Serra d'Almos and the hamlets of Darmós and Llaberia.

History and archaeology

The area was settled in prehistoric times, and there are cave paintings at several sites near the village of Tivissa. In Iberian times, Tivissa was an important community, and the name itself may be of Iberian origin. There are the remains of an Iberian settlement at Banyoles, some five kilometres from the modern village and overlooking the Ebro river. The importance of these settlements was surely related to their position on the route through the pass of Coll de Fatxes, leading from the coast of Tarragona to what is now Zaragoza.In the Roman period, amphorae made in Tivissa made their way as far as Rome itself, presumably to transport olive oil or wine.From the Middle Ages, there are a few remnants of the castle, and about 1350 Tivissa became a walled settlement. Some remains of these walls can still be seen, particularly the gateways of Portal de l'Era, Portal d'Avall and Portal de la Raval. The Gothic interior of the church dates from the 13th century.

The church

The most unusual and surprising of Tivissa’s historic buildings is without a doubt the church. From the outside, it looks much like many of the 19th-century Renaissance-style churches in the area. But step inside and you find yourself in a Gothic interior.The Gothic church was built on the site of an earlier Romanesque building in the 13th-14th centuries, and various additions and alterations were made in the 16th to 18th centuries. The octagonal bell-tower was built in 1550.Then during the 19th century the rector Pere Rius started to plan a larger building, and received the support of the local council and of the president of the First Spanish Republic, Estanislao Figueras, who had connections with Tivissa. Because of the lack of available space, it was decided to build the new church on the same site. It was constructed around the old church with the intention of subsequently demolishing the old building. However, when the rector died in 1894 the work came to an end and the demolition never took place, thus leaving the Gothic church standing within the new one.

Economy and physical setting

In modern times, the economy is still largely based on agricultural activities, although the steep, marginal land in the hills has progressively gone out of cultivation. The chief crops are olives, grapes for wine, nuts (hazelnuts, almonds) and soft fruit (peaches, cherries). In recent years, tourism has been encouraged and is beginning to make an economic impact.

References

*"Tivissa", Tivissa Municipal Council publication, n.d.
*"Dues Esglésies", Tivissa Municipal Council publication, n.d.
*"Origen dels noms geogràfics de Catalunya", Manuel Bofarull i Terrades. Editorial Milà, Barcelona, 1991

External links

*http://www.fut.es/~netebre/ribera/historia.htm
*http://www.castillosnet.org/tarragona/T-CAS-091.shtml
*http://www.castillosnet.org/tarragona/T-CAS-092.shtml