THE CASTLE OF REQUESENS

REQUESENS

The old town of Requesens is situated on the southern side of Puigneulos at 1,255m, which also as the source of the Anyet (or Requesens’s stream as it’s called locally).

Located amid cork oak forests and abandoned farmsteads, in the clearing to the left of the stream you can see the castle atop the 511 m high hill, overlooking the church house, which was the original parish sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady.

The first documented record of the place was in a Charles the Bald precept in 859, the Peralada pagus (villare quod vocant Richusins).

The castle was built by Gausfred II of Rossello following the separation of the counties of Rossello and Empuries. It was built on freehold land which his uncle, the Count Hugues I of Empuries, had entrusted to him, and this later became a source of disagreement between the two countries.

The castle continued to depend on the support of the Counts of Rossello until the twelfth century, but by this time connections were already being made to the Rocaberti lineage, who purchased the property and who continued to have juridiction over the area until the modern era.

 

 

REQUESENS AND ITS CASTLE

ALMOST A STORY VOID OF HISTORY

 

Generally when we speak about castles we imagine warring armies coming to blows with clashing swords.

In contrast, even though we have written accounts of the bloody event that actually took place on the site to provide evidence of war. This can easily give us the false impression that no war ever actually took place.

Not only do we have no records of a battle taking place in the vicinity of the castle, but we’re also unsure of the castle’s originins – who built it, and why.

We do know that in 859 Humfrido (probably of Goth origin) donated the castle to Oriol, which suggests that they may have been the castle’s founders.

However, other stories lead us to believe that the original castle may have been built by the Counts of Roussilon.

Indeed, by the end of the ninth century the history of Humfrido and Oriol had been lost in the sands of time.

The Counts of Roussilon continue to rank among the more colourful characters in the history of the area, even if the precise role they played in the castle’s contruction remains unclear to this day.

All this was happening around the twelfth century, at the time of the Crusades to the Holy Lands, during which the Cathars continued to hold power in Occitania, Roussilon and the Pyrenees.

At this time the Alberes Mountains, along with much of the Pyrenees, lay within a Catalan kingdom which extended far into France, in contrast to nowadays, when the mountains delineate the border between the two countries.

At the time, the reach of the Catalan kings extended beyond the mountains into the whole of Occitania.

But this Catalan personality was dramatically extinguished on 9 September 1213. While fighting against the mercenary troops of Simon de Montfort in support of the Counts of Toulouse, the Catalan King Pere the Catholic (father of James I) was tragically killed in battle.

Turning away from matters of politics and war to matters of commerce, Requesens Castle had for centuries stood beside a popular trading route, with many traders travelling from the Plains of Roussillon in the north to the Plain of Emporda in the south, via the Albera Mountains and the Puigneulos, which provided a direct mountain pass through the high Pyrenees which were largely unpassable in winter.

The name of the place has changed down the years. In 1040 it was called Recosin, in 1085 it became Rechodindus and by 1278 it was know as Requeseno, which was later modified to Requesens, as it continues to be know to this day.

Although it continued to belong to the Counts of Rossello into the twelfth century, the name of the Count of Rocaberti began to appear by 1285.

In 1420, King Alfons V gave Requesens Castle to Dalmaci de Rocaberti, along with the other sites of Verges, La Tallada and Vinca of Roussilon.

 

The influence of the Counts of Roussillon had become eclipsed by the Counts of Rocaberti, whose possessions now included Requesens with its castle and surrounding farms, along with the small village of Santa Maria, built in 844, which is even older than the castle itself.

Every year in the first week of June the people of Figueres joined the local country folk in the annual procession from Santa Sebastia Church, praying to the Tramontana wind raging down from the mountains to purify their souls for the comings year.

The Counts of Rocaberti continued to own both the castle and Peralada for a further five centuries.

In the nineteenth century Tomas de Rocaberti of Dameto joined with the Earl of Peralada and Viscount of Rocaberti in undertaking to restore the castle to its former glory.

However, Tomas de Rocaberti unfortnately died in 1898 without having seen the restoration through to completion.

Nevertheless, the following year the restoration was compleded by his, sister, Joanne Adelaida of Rocaberti, who had been his sole heir.

It seems that in those days women always had their « little secrets » and Joanne Adelaida of Rocaberti alone must have know what then led her to pass on all her possession to Ferran Truyols Despuig of Mallorca, Marquis of La Torre.

It soon became clear that Feeran didn’t know what to make of this monumental heritage and he quickly sold it to the two brothers Joan and Pere Rossello from Mallorca. Tragically, they then began a brutal and devastating explotation of the ancient woodland that populated the mountain.

This logging lasted twenty years without any heed to the environmental damage they were causing.

Having completed this operation by 1920-22, the Rossello brothers then sold the whole mountain to the Duke of infantado. This then led to further uproar, as the Duke proceeded to drive the local farmers off the land, and ejected the village residents from their homes without any from of compensation.

In 1942 the Duke of Infantodo then sold the mountain to the Bores Society, who later sol dit on to two local families, the Estebas and Pijoans, who own it to this day.

The castle actually acted as a barracks at the end of the Spanish Civil War, housing a company of young men who were meant to guard the border with France. Unfortunately ignorant of its historical value, their neglect of the building led to the destruction of the interior and the tower battlements.

They left the castle in ruins, as it had been a hundred years before, and it remains as they left it to this days.