Sellui
Sellui
Balestui and Ancs, an ideal place for hiking and mountain biking. Until the mid-19th century it had its own town council, but then it became part of the municipality of Montcortès. Today it is the only Decentralised Municipal Entity within the municipality of Baix Pallars.
The settlement is made up of 14 houses arranged on the slope of the hill that shapes the village, at the summit of which stood the old medieval castle, now disappeared. The castle of Sellui (formerly Sersui) appears in documents from the early 12th century, when Bishop Ot of Urgell restored to the monastery of Gerri the churches of Santa Coloma, Sant Andreu and Sant Martí de Maçana, located within the territory of the castle of Sellui. Next to the castle stood the chapel of Sant Pere, which depended on the monastery of Gerri and of which no remains survive today.
The parish church of Sellui is the church of Santa Coloma, already documented in the 11th century as part of the monastery’s jurisdiction. It is a popular-style church from the late 18th century, with a single nave and a rectangular chancel. Near Sellui stands the old church of Sant Andreu, with a rectangular floor plan and a semicircular apse, now almost completely disappeared. To this day, there is only documentary evidence of the church of Sant Martí de Maçana, but it has not been located.
On the outskirts of Sellui stands the casalot de la Crua, a three-storey square tower. It is believed that an old medieval settlement once stood on this site.
Once past the village, if we climb the track that leads to Ancs, we find the remains of the mola de Peró, currently in poor condition, although the turbine chamber, the water reservoir and the channel can still be seen. Besides grinding flour, the mill was also used as an alternator, supplying الكهرباء to the villages of Sellui, Balestui, Bretui, Montcortès, Ancs, Mencui and Estac.