AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Perched on a sunlit plateau above the Riera de Lloberola valley in the rural interior of Lleida province, the Ermita de Santa Maria del Solà is a compact Romanesque chapel whose 13th-century nave and semicircular apse have stood watch over Catalonia's countryside for nearly eight hundred years. Known locally both as Santa Maria del Solà — named for its position on the sunny side of the valley — and as Santa Maria de Lloberola after the nearby hamlet, it is one of two Romanesque monuments that anchor the heritage trail of Biosca.↗↗
Visitors come for the architecture, the panoramic views across the valley, and the living tradition of the Easter Monday aplec, when local devotion to the Virgin of Solà draws a large gathering. The chapel itself is usually locked, but its setting alone rewards the short drive up from the village of Lloberola.↗↗
A Chapel Above the Valley
Santa Maria del Solà sits at 643 metres on a raised plain along the right bank of the Riera de Lloberola, a stream that winds through farmland and scattered farmhouses in this quiet corner of Solsonès. Its name — "del Solà" — refers to its position on the sunny side of the valley, a contrast to the shaded slopes opposite. From the terrace around the chapel you look east along the entire length of the stream valley toward its headwaters, south to the ridge of the Serra de l'Estany and Sant Pere Sasserra, and west back toward the monumental complex of Lloberola itself.
