Santa Magdalena de Vergós Guerrejat
On top of a hill, by the banks of the river Sió and quite close to its headwater, we find the castle and church of Santa Magdalena (Saint Magdalene) of Vergós Guerrejat. This village, of some thirty inhabitants, is part of the municipality of Estaràs, close to the capital of the region: Cervera.
While there are indications of a church and a castle in the 9th century, built with the aim of controlling the territory in the frontier of the self-called “reconquesta” (the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula), the current building dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Meca, lords of the site, ordered the church of Santa Magdalena also be built. From the castle’s quarters, the lords could hear mass, which explains the presence of balconies in both sides of the central nave, just above the six lateral chapels.
The church, opened in 1720, is dominated by a Baroque altarpiece, not sculpted, but painted with the trompe l’oeil technique, which helped reduce the cost of a piece made of wood, likely unaffordable to lords of the lower nobility of the beginning of the 18th century.
In front of the castle and the church, the square is a splendid lookout (without trompe d’oeil of any kind) over the fields of the Segarra.
