The
history of the village is intimately linked to the monastery. It was founded
in the year 887 by Wilfred the Hairy, who made his daughter Emma responsible
for the Benedictine community. The abbesses lasted until 1017, the year
in which they were expulsed due to a papal bull with the accusation of
disorders, a historic episode which, in future times, is responsible for
the appearance of the legend of Count Arnau.
With the expulsion of the abbesses, a series of communities of Augustine and Benedictine monks lived there. This maintained and increased the prestige of the monastery. The importance of its archives and the finding of the troubadour's song books is proof of the cultural life of the monastery.
Around the monastery, the village of Sant Joan was created. At the beginning, the village people lived dispersed in farm houses around the parish of "Sant Pol", a district known as "El Raval". As the inhabitants kept on increasing, it was necessary to construct a village within city walls, which is now known as the Old Town. The construction took place on terrains known as "El Vinyal" due to the fact that there were vineyards planted there. The Old Town welcomed the medieval guilds, among the most important ones the tanners and the dyers, at the Main Square, a centre of commercial interchange and beautiful buildings of which, even nowadays, reminiscences are left in the shape of some Gothic window or some monumental portal.
The village of Sant Joan followed the vicissitudes marked by the history of Catalonia. This is how it became the Carlist capital, suffered the consequences of the wars against the French and kept on changing its social physiognomy and social structure with the industrialisation. As is the case of many other riparian villages with the River Ter, Sant Joan de les Abadesses got familiarised with the industrialisation through the construction of various textile factories that took advantage of the hydraulic energy in order to aliment the machines. The village was also a pioneer in the manufacturing of cement, since the introduction of this matter in the Iberian Peninsula was a citizen of Sant Joan. The Railway Route allows us to get to know this industrial past of the village. At the present, it is a town dedicated to industry, but conserving, notwithstanding, stockbreeding, principally of cows, that recalls the past, so closely linked to the land.
With the expulsion of the abbesses, a series of communities of Augustine and Benedictine monks lived there. This maintained and increased the prestige of the monastery. The importance of its archives and the finding of the troubadour's song books is proof of the cultural life of the monastery.
Around the monastery, the village of Sant Joan was created. At the beginning, the village people lived dispersed in farm houses around the parish of "Sant Pol", a district known as "El Raval". As the inhabitants kept on increasing, it was necessary to construct a village within city walls, which is now known as the Old Town. The construction took place on terrains known as "El Vinyal" due to the fact that there were vineyards planted there. The Old Town welcomed the medieval guilds, among the most important ones the tanners and the dyers, at the Main Square, a centre of commercial interchange and beautiful buildings of which, even nowadays, reminiscences are left in the shape of some Gothic window or some monumental portal.
The village of Sant Joan followed the vicissitudes marked by the history of Catalonia. This is how it became the Carlist capital, suffered the consequences of the wars against the French and kept on changing its social physiognomy and social structure with the industrialisation. As is the case of many other riparian villages with the River Ter, Sant Joan de les Abadesses got familiarised with the industrialisation through the construction of various textile factories that took advantage of the hydraulic energy in order to aliment the machines. The village was also a pioneer in the manufacturing of cement, since the introduction of this matter in the Iberian Peninsula was a citizen of Sant Joan. The Railway Route allows us to get to know this industrial past of the village. At the present, it is a town dedicated to industry, but conserving, notwithstanding, stockbreeding, principally of cows, that recalls the past, so closely linked to the land.
