The history of the sanctuary of Foix

Cels Gomis recorded this account in 1888: a shepherd found the image of the Virgin in the cave and carried it off in his shepherd's bag. On reaching the place where the wayside chapel now stands, the image disappeared and reappeared in the cave. According to the account, this happened three times. After telling the bailiff, it was decided that the church should be built there.1888

The account links the wayside chapel with the place where the image would disappear. In August 1889, Josep Castellanos described the inscription "Ex-voto 1707" there, on the door lintel, with the village's coat of arms above it.1890 It also records that the Easter procession would stop there to pray a Salve.

Castellanos also described a wide arch over the cave that supported the Virgin's camarín (shrine chamber) and two small naves added to the church. This arrangement placed the image directly above the cavity.1890

The legend already appears in a ruling by the curia of Tarragona from 1726, which attributes the building of the church to the Virgin's miracle before a shepherd: ob insigne Miraculum, quod Beata Virgo à quodam Devoto Pastore. The passage documents the presence of this tradition in an ecclesiastical text predating the 19th-century hiking accounts.1726

The 1985 archaeological intervention located Iberian pottery on the hill and in the fill used to level the ground during the church's construction. In this latter case, these are ancient materials incorporated into later layers. At the foot of the western slope a pottery kiln was identified, while the survey of the Pla de les Torres yielded materials from the same period.1985

Around 1910, Cels Gomis had already described, in the Geografia General de Catalunya, the discovery, in the municipal area of Torrelles, of a kiln with Campanian, Saguntine and painted Iberian pottery, as well as graves covered with flat Roman tiles.1910 It cannot be determined whether this is the same kiln: Gomis does not specify its location, and the archaeological study does not mention this reference.

In Jardín de María, published in 1657, the Dominican friar Narcís Camós records an account according to which the church already existed in the year 607, when it would have received indulgences from Pope Boniface IV.1657

In August 1889, Josep Castellanos described a handwritten panel in Catalan displayed at the sanctuary, which listed the indulgences granted to the church. There he read the date 608.1890 The panel might be related to the account recorded by Camós, but this connection is not documented.

The documentary study associated with the 1985 excavation records two further accounts: a rebuilding of the church in the year 703 and the handover of a church to the canonry of Santa Maria de Foix in 1010.1985 The authors note that the archaeology does not allow these dates to be confirmed, given the poor condition of the oldest structures. Verification requires locating the documents on which they are based.

On 9 December 984, Sendred, of the house of Gurb, donated to the church of Sant Pere de Vic half of an allod in the county of Barcelona that included the castle of Font-rubí and the towers of Murrocurto and Guardiola. In describing its boundaries, the document places to the west the boundary of the castle of Fodex.984

The old drawer index, made in 1812, gives a summary in Catalan and adds a detail that the published summary does not: if Sendred died without children, the donation would extend to the rest of his allods, in the county of Barcelona and in the Vallès, in the Marca, in the county of Manresa and in that of Vic.1812

A reference from 1067 again places the castle of Foix as the boundary of another municipal area, that of Pontons, in a sale by Bernat Oleguer to the count of Barcelona. This is known from the bibliography; direct consultation of the published document is still pending.1067

The 1985 excavation identified beneath the church the remains of an earlier rectangular building, of dimensions close to the current nave, but smaller. The foundation of the south wall survives, while the north wall could not be documented. The floor was of natural rock, cut and levelled, and the entrance was on the west side.1985

The will of Guillem de la Granada, from 1198, contains bequests for the executors to build a church in honour of God and the Virgin Mary.1985 In 1263 the decision to extend the church is documented.

The shape of the hill helps explain the defensive character of the site. Situated at 661 metres above sea level, it is arranged in three terraces held up by retaining walls. The archaeological study describes, on the lower terrace, a stretch of wall and the enclosure's gate with a round arch; beside it, the remains of a square three-storey building used as outbuildings. To the west stood an older tower, while the rock face protected the north side.1985

Between the abandonment of the Roman villa of la Verna, in the 5th century, and the 984 reference, this research has not located any written documentation for the area. A full search of volume I of the Cartulari de Sant Cugat, which runs up to 999, has not identified any local place names in it. Volumes II and III have also been searched in full, but document 1160, dated 1185 and cited as the first mention of the name Torrelles, falls on pages missing from the copy we have. A reproduction has been requested from the Biblioteca de Catalunya.1185

Two documents link Foix with the Cervelló family. In the will of 3 May 1262, Guillem de Cervelló ordered that the castles of Cervelló, Foix, Vilademàger, Miralles and Santa Perpètua would revert to the hospital.1262 In 1303, the heading of the pastoral visit to Vilademàger states that the bishop of Barcelona was invited by Guerau de Cervelló «apud Torrelles».

On 20 July 1303, the bishop of Barcelona Ponç de Gualba visited the parish of Foix. He summoned the parishioners to the place called Torroeles, the village of Torrelles, and sent a canon to inspect the church on the hill.1303

The visit records accusations against the rector Jaume Torra: having a relationship with a woman from Vilademàger, with whom he had two sons aged five and six; having a son fraudulently tonsured, that is, initiated into clerical status; and lending money at interest.1303 The record notes the admission of the facts and the commitment to contribute twenty sous towards the works on the church.

The sources record the decision to extend the church and make a new altarpiece in 1263, and the extension of the Virgin's chamber in 1267, with the licence of Bishop Arnau de Gurb. The record transcribed by Camós places the consecration of the church on 21 December 1330.1330

The archaeological study places the replacement of the earlier building with a rectangular church in the second half of the 13th century, with more solid walls set on the rock and a lime floor. Inside there were pointed transverse arches and a vault of limestone slabs laid on edge, reinforced at the centre by a transverse rib. The roof was of Arabic tile, with two pitches.1985

According to the study by Fierro and Solé, the consecration was officiated by Pere, bishop of Santa Justa, in Sardinia, on behalf of the bishop of Barcelona. The record mentions three altars, dedicated to the Virgin, Saint Michael and Saint Macarius.1985

This phase corresponds to the basic structure of the church as it survives today. The east wall was replaced by a polygonal apse. The star-ribbed vault of the presbytery has thick ribs and mouldings that archaeologists describe as «extraordinarily rough and plain»; the keystone depicts the sanctuary's patroness. The south door, with a round arch and large voussoirs, is also attributed to this phase.1985

Vila identified a system of proportions based on the cana destre and the ratio 3/2, which he linked to building methods used in Catalonia between the 10th and 12th centuries.1988 According to his analysis, the nave follows this system, while the north chapels have a different wall thickness and the apse postdates the nave walls.

The 1985 excavation, led by Javier Fierro and Xavier Solé as part of the restoration, made it possible to study the structures beneath the floor. Archaeologists identified ten building phases. The first two (the Iberian settlement and the documentary references before the 11th century) leave no ground plan; the remaining eight are as follows.1985

The 1378 chapel was founded by Ramon Mascaró, canon of Barcelona and rector of Sant Joan de Mora, in the diocese of Tortosa. He appointed the heir of the Mascaró de les Torres house as patron of the benefice. The chapel had a ribbed groin vault, an inverted truncated-pyramid capital and two polygonal columns. The rock was cut back to level its floor with that of the nave. A fragment of pottery decorated in green and manganese provided evidence for the archaeological dating.1985

The excavation also recovered 138 coins from the 13th to the 20th century, deposited at the Gabinet Numismàtic de Catalunya. The collection includes pugesas from Lleida, an ardit from La Seu d'Urgell, and five- and ten-cèntim coins from the Franco period. Their study provides information on monetary circulation across the church's different periods of use.1993

In the first half of the 15th century a porch parallel to the south facade was built, with pointed arches of large rough stone voussoirs. According to the archaeological interpretation, it formed the first stretch of a passage linking the church to the Virgin's chamber, located in the natural cave beneath the apse.1985

In 1557 a second chapel was built to the north, trapezoidal in plan, with a brick groin vault and ribs on corbels decorated with angel figures. A raised choir was also set up in the east third of the nave. The archaeological study provides a date for these elements, later described by the restoring architect.1985

In 1705, the rector Diego Ortiz obtained a licence to build a chapel dedicated to the Holy Christ on the south facade, using and walling up two arches of the porch. A new choir, three ossuaries (one in the centre of the presbytery), the raising of the baptismal font on a plinth, and the first tiled floor in the whole church, lifted during the 1985 excavation, are also attributed to this phase.1985

The lawsuit began on 3 August 1722. The ecclesiastical authority of Barcelona ruled in favour of the rector that October, but the curia of Tarragona overturned the decision on 16 December 1726.1726 The ruling ordered the removal of the coloured tiles marking out the burial place and the restoration of the floor.

A hand-drawn, coloured military sketch map shows the road from Vilafranca to la Llacuna, with Sant Martí, Torrelles, Foix, Pontons, Marmellà and Fontrubí. It bears no year. The stamp with the royal arms reads «1r Exército, Estado Mayor», and distances are given in toesas, an old unit of length. First Army was the name of the army of Catalonia from 1811, so the map probably dates from the Peninsular War. This is not certain: the catalogue only dates it to the 19th century.around 1811-1814

Cels Gomis, a civil engineer and folklorist, found the rector in the sacristy after Mass. He describes him as an elderly man living alone, who was distrustful following an earlier robbery.1888 When he asked him about the history of the Virgin, the rector replied: «The history is the goigs.»

The sources document several episodes of violence at the sanctuary during the 19th century. In 1828 there were robberies at the church and the rectory.1985 Gomis's 1888 account records another robbery suffered by the rector.

The article Santa María de Foix. Estadística funesta, published in El Labriego of Vilafranca in January 1896, gives an account of the 19th-century rectors and the episodes of violence that affected them.1896 It is a retrospective press account, which should be distinguished from the judicial documentation of the events.

The rector was murdered on Saturday 6 August 1892, the feast of Saint Saviour. According to the trial accounts, the attackers had set out from El Vendrell at midnight. The municipal judge Sebastià Güell placed the crime between five and six in the morning.1894 Parishioners found the body the next day, Sunday 7 August, the date given in the catalogues consulted.

The rector was 72 years old, lived alone and had served in Foix since 1867. The August 1892 news reports give the spellings Josep Payerols i Junyent and Pallerols; by 1896, the Vilafranca press uses Pallarols.1892 These variants should be taken into account in documentary research, without attributing their origin to a cause the sources do not allow us to establish.

In 1898, the report of another trial explains it like this: after the lootings and the two rectors who had been killed, the rectors had considered the old church unsafe, and a chapel at Masflorit had become the parish church of the former municipality of Foix. The newspaper does not say whether this is the same new church or a chapel that served in its place in the meantime.1898

The parish collection at the Arxiu Diocesà de Barcelona holds two requests for pardon: a letter addressed to the bishopric and an 1896 draft addressed to the president of the Council of Ministers. These documents bear witness to the efforts made to obtain a pardon for the condemned men.1896

The municipal report of 24 March 1941, included in the Causa General, describes the losses. According to the report, at the two churches on the plain the contents were burned in the street and the buildings were preserved. The losses of images, altars and ornaments were valued at 60,000 pesetas at the parish church and 10,000 at the parish of Foix. As for the sanctuary, the mayor described it as completely destroyed by the fire and stated that he could not calculate its value.1941

In 1944, following a query from the Barcelona public prosecutor in January 1943, the municipal court was asked for information to clarify the events and identify those responsible. In the record of proceedings of 16 October, signed by the clerk Lluís Morgades before the municipal judge Elies Rafecas, it was stated that no one had been found who could give details. The document attributed the events to outsiders, without identifying them.1944

Two summers earlier, in August 1976, some hundred primary pupils from the Col·legi Sant Ramon in Vilafranca had spent a week at Foix clearing weeds and rubble, and the newspaper that reported it called on the official bodies to restore it. The report calls it «the chapel» and dates it to 1707, the year carved on the lintel of the chapel on the path: it is not clear whether the clean-up was at the sanctuary or at the chapel.1976

Before securing the intervention of the Diputació, the village's young people helped keep the sanctuary standing with the means they had. According to the oral testimony gathered, they put up scaffolding, cleared away the fallen wall debris that blocked access and made what repairs they could.Oral testimony

The photographs by Jordi Valls i Pedrol, dated by the ACAP catalogue to 10 March 1979, document this work amid the rubble and vegetation. Next to the stairs, a sign expressed the purpose of the recovery: «Out of the ruins let us make a palace».1979

The same testimony recalls that they fitted a door from Cal Pauguit, which allowed the church to be locked with a padlock. Inside they installed a provisional image of the Virgin with candles. The photographs from the Romànic del Penedès collection show the prepared access and that image, different from the old carving destroyed in 1936 and from the later reproduction by Emili Colom. The report is undated in the catalogue; comparison with the SCCM photos places it, as a hypothesis, between 1978 and 1981.Oral testimony

Money was also raised in the village. For Midsummer (Sant Joan) 1981, the Club Esportiu Torrellenc organised a match in aid of rebuilding the sanctuary: the club's veterans against the first team, which was finishing the season in the third regional division. Players, referee and linesmen all took part for free so that the whole takings would go to the sanctuary. In the same note, the Junta de Reconstrucció «Amics de Foix» gave the number of an account at the Caixa del Penedès in Torrelles, in the name of the «Junta Parroquial del Santuari» or of «Amics de Foix».1981

The village learned about the project before the works began. On Saturday 30 January 1982, at the Casal Torrellenc, the parish priest and the Amics de Santa Maria de Foix group presented it to more than a hundred people. Vila explained it with slides: a restoration in phases, respecting all of the building's architecture, in which the new parts could be recognised and undone. He also suggested that beneath the old atrium there might be remains of an older church, pre-Romanesque.1982

The works were carried out in phases. The first ran from 13 October 1982 to 29 April 1983 and cost 2,908,335 pesetas.1982 The second was finished on 16 April 1984, and the works were halted until the spring of 1985.1984 The third was approved by the Provincial Council in early April 1985, in a package of works on monuments, buildings and roads worth more than 404 million pesetas.1985

Not everyone agreed. In the spring of 1983, the Vilafranca weeklies and the local television reported a protest in the village over the way the works were being done. The Town Council responded with a statement: the protest came from a small group, the church belonged to the Diocese of Barcelona, and it was the Diocese that had accepted the Provincial Council's offer. On the main complaint, the old staircase cut into the walls to climb the bell tower, it said that it had had to be done away with in order to support the reinforced concrete trusses and the new roof. The presbytery, in a ruinous state, would be dismantled and rebuilt from scratch.1983

On 3 December 1983, the president of the Provincial Council, Antoni Dalmau, went up to see the works with the architect, on the same day he opened the Foix stream sewage treatment plant and the enlarged Casa de la Vila (town hall).1983

Meanwhile, the people who had rallied around the sanctuary were already holding activities under the association's name. On Easter Monday 1984, which that year fell on Sant Jordi (St George's Day), the steering committee of «Amics de Foix» organised an afternoon at the Casal Torrellenc: a talk by the researcher Josep M. Gavín on the latest Romanesque discoveries, a film on the restoration of Sant Pere de Ponts, the Petits Cantaires de Torrelles, a recital and a screening of «Naturalia al Foix», lent by the Centre Excursionista del Penedès.1984

This film, a short by the Comissió Cívica del Penedès, showed the mountain and the Foix valley: the cliffs, the roca Foradada, the gorges, the mills of the municipal area and the effects of the fires. It was screened again in Vilafranca in January 1988. Today we do not know where it is.1987

The last three names show that Santa Maria de Foix remained a separate parish after the move, with its own priest until the war. In 1927 the bishop's pastoral visit still treats it as a parish distinct from that of Torrelles.1925 And in December 1931, in the diocesan collection for worship and clergy, Santa Maria de Foix contributes 475 pesetas.1931