Espluga de Cuberes
Espluga de Cuberes
Espluga de Cuberes is an abandoned troglodyte settlement, with around 6 ruined houses, set within a rock shelter on a cliff on the southern slope of the Serra de Cuberes, above the Barranc de l’Infern. It stands at 960 metres above sea level and offers impressive views over Boumort, the Hortoneda area and the Conca de Dalt, making it a very suitable place for hiking and mountain biking. In the past, together with the village of Solduga, it formed its own municipality, but in the mid-19th century it was incorporated into the municipality of Baén.
The first historical references we have to Espluga date from the last third of the 12th century, when Count Artau II and Guillem donated a capmàs located in this place to the abbey of Gerri. Its link with the monastery of Gerri continued in the centuries that followed.
The most outstanding building in the whole site is the Romanesque church of Santa Coloma, an 11th-century troglodyte construction that uses the walls of the rock shelter for its northern enclosure and roof. It has a rectangular floor plan ending in a semicircular apse. The southern wall, which rises to the roof of the shelter, has three round-arched, double-splayed windows. The most singular feature of this church is the interior decoration of part of the southern wall and the apse, made up of a frieze of Lombard arches.