Montblanc is a walled medieval village some 30 kilometres inland from Tarragona; we spent an afternoon there -- just long enough to get a sense of the place, although perhaps a little too rushed. But then again, had we stayed longer we would probably have found the charm starting to wear off pretty quickly -- Montblanc looks very pretty, but there's very little to actually do there once you've inspected all the major architectural sites.

So here are some pictures of some of the buildings and the well-preserved 14th century walls -- starting with a map of the town and an image of its legend. You'll note that the language of the latter is Catalan, not Castilian Spanish.

    

Depending on how often one stops to take photographs, a walk through the walled part of the village could take no more than ten minutes. Narrow streets predominate; here's a view of one of them....which is in fact the Carrer Mayor, the main street through the village from the southern to the northern gates. It's followed by photographs of some of the buildings in the main square, the Placa Mayor, which among other things is the largest public open space within the walled part of the village. (As the map shows, there's a larger open space behind the Church of Santa Maria, but this appears to be reserved for the clergy.)

    

        

Below, on the left, is the Church of Santa Maria referred to earlier -- known in Montblanc as the Catedral, by virtue of its size and grandeur (built in the Catalan Gothic style, with a later facade), but actually no more than a large parish church. Below right is me preparing to take a (non-digital) photograph of it (a picture used here for the architectural merit of the buildings behind me, of course).

    

And so on to the northern gate, and the street down to the medieval gothic bridge over the river. The street leads past a former medieval hospital, which now holds the village's archives.

        

To finish, some views of the preserved 14th century walls which make Montblanc unique. Save to note that all these photographs were taken from within the walls, because the view is more interesting than the exterior (crenellations are crenellations everywhere, after all), no commentary seems necessary.