Bellpuig

Camino Catalán por San Juan de la Peña

Lleida · LéridaCatalunya · Cataluña

Transparent Catalan compound. Bell ('beautiful') plus puig ('hill, mountain'), description of the limestone hill on which the urban centre sits.

Medieval town of l'Urgell, residence of the Cardona-Anglesola and later of the Dukes of Sessa. The conventual church of Sant Bartomeu houses the Renaissance sepulchre of Ramon Folch de Cardona, viceroy of Naples (1467-1522), work by Giovanni Merliano da Nola (1525).

Evolution of the name

  1. bellum podium medieval Latin 10th–11th centuries
  2. Bellpuig medieval Catalan from the 12th century

Reflections, to the letter

The name translates itself, from the Latin pulchrum podium: 'beautiful hill'. The town points to it from below, growing at the foot of the highest of the three hills that hold it, the one still crowned by the ruins of the barony's castle. Lift your eyes to the puig and you will see the adjective that has been naming this place for eight centuries.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Ramon Folch de Cardona
Admiral and viceroy of Naples (1509-1522), Catalan military man in the service of King Ferdinand the Catholic and then of Charles V. He commanded the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean during the Italian Wars. His Renaissance sepulchre in Bellpuig, work by the Neapolitan Giovanni Merliano da Nola (1525), is one of the great pieces of the early Hispanic Renaissance sculpture.

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Camino Catalán por San Juan de la Peña

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Tamarite de Litera
  3. Fraga
  4. Almacelles
  5. Alcarràs
  6. Lleida
  7. Mollerussa
  8. Bellpuig
  9. Tàrrega
  10. Cervera
  11. Sant Antolí
  12. Calaf
  13. Igualada
  14. Manresa
  15. ··· toward the start