Places of interest
Places full of history, in the town and the surrounding countryside.
Old town hall building
It faces Plaça de la Vila and Carrer Major. Once home to the Town Hall, it now houses the medical centre and the Justice of the Peace office. Look out for the bell tower with its belfry and clock, the overhanging eaves and the triangular battlements along the top.
Sant Pere Fountain
Plaça Major is presided over by a statue dedicated to Pere Farré Vallès, put up to mark the opening of the public fountains in 1909. The monument has a stone basin on each side and a pedestal topped by Saint Peter holding his keys.
Les Gorgues del Foix
A pool on the River Foix; follow the river upstream and you will reach small waterfalls and a little lake that rises among the rocks. An almost untouched spot that you can only reach on foot: along the river you will find three deep pools in the middle of nature. Route 3.
Foix Hermitage
Legend has it that the statue of Our Lady of Foix was found in the cave below the Sanctuary, and that a shepherd carried it off in his bag towards Torrelles; halfway there, it kept slipping away and returning to the cave. The hermitage was built at the spot where it escaped. The chapel dates from 1707 (EX VOTO inscription on the lintel) and was built on the orders of Ramon de Peguera, colonel of Archduke Charles's Royal Guard. It has a single nave, a barrel vault and a neoclassical doorway with the worn Peguera coat of arms.
Peguera manor house
The Peguera family, lords of Foix, built a manor house in the town in the second half of the 16th century. Its walled enclosure survives, and on the site there is now a modern rural tourism building that keeps the old cellars. In 1710 Archduke Charles made Guerau de Peguera i Berardo the first Marquis of Foix.
Capella del Roser
This chapel belonged to the Peguera manor house and was blessed in 1579; it served as the family burial place. On one side it keeps the rounded, sloping walls of what was probably a defensive tower. Today it holds the municipal historical archive, run by Els Amics de Foix.
Water troughs
Old animal troughs that were once used as public washing places. They are one of the town's most typical sights and stand against the old Peguera manor house, where the Capella del Roser is.
Irrigation aqueduct
Five irrigation channels (recs) once crossed the whole municipality. They are recorded from 1754 but are probably older. They carried water to fields and vegetable gardens and gave many people food and work. Today a reservoir, an aqueduct and a few underground water tunnels remain, and some gardens are still watered from part of the original channel.
Irrigation bridge
It once carried water to the town's watermills, which were common in the 13th century, when Cistercian monks encouraged people to settle and farm the land. The mills ground grain and, later, made olive oil and even electricity for Torrelles.
Church of Sant Genís
In the old quarter. It was built in the 18th century (the doorway bears the date 1779), altered in 1855 by the architect Josep Simó i Fontcuberta and remodelled in 1923. It has a single nave with a barrel vault, a rounded apse and four side chapels on each side. On the façade, look out for the bell tower, the curved (mixtilinear) top and the large doorway with two pairs of columns, vases and the statue of the saint. The Festa Major (town festival) is celebrated here on 25 August.