THE HEARTBEAT OF THE STONES

Welcome

We’re at ground zero of Vic, where the town began…
History makes its presence felt here…
Under layers and layers piled one on top of the other over the centuries…
…today we’re going to take you back through all these ages.

…and we can find out about them here, at the highest point in the historical town centre, where the Roman temple, the mediaeval castle of the Montcadas and the baroque church of La Pietat stand entwined, forming a whole in the same space.
The archaeological finds around us allow us to go further and trace what Vic was like long ago.
On the first stratum we can see Auso, the Roman town.
The remains indicate the layout of different rooms and some silos where grain or other agricultural surpluses were stored.
And they reveal an important town, founded to be the administrative centre of a community that spread over the whole plain…

Later on, another set of silos from late antiquity, from the 5th to 7th centuries AD, allow us to deduce that the city did not decline with the fall of the Roman empire, but grew and was chosen to be the seat of a diocese.

Water must have flowed for centuries from the well found in the left-hand corner.
A spring that was quite important for the inhabitants as its location meant it must have been an essential source of water.
The well lay within the fortifications, under the control of the castle of the Montcada family.
Some walls of that castle are still standing.

Beyond the mediaeval remains, we travel forward in time without moving because on this spot we can see the baroque splendour of the chapel of the church of La Pietat.

Here, at Vic ground zero, all ages are there for us to explore.

(try not to rhyme)

A journey through history that has only just begun.