Suria: a point of great geological interest
Súria
Súria is a city, head of the municipality of the same name, in the Bages region. It is located about 15 km from Manresa, the capital of the region, in the Cardener valley, which crosses the town leaving the popular district of Salipota to one side, and the other the oldest part of the town under the promontory where the Old Town is located, built around the castle in a narrow and walled area, retains all its medieval appearance with narrow streets, arcades and porches.
Broken up by the foothills of the Castelltallat mountains (601 m), to the west, and Castelladral (515 m), to the north. The terrain is also drained by the torrent of Coaner, the Cardener tributary on the right, and the Tordell and Hortons streams tributaries on the left. The highest peak is the Puig de San? (613 meters), to the east of the municipal district. The potassium mines of Súria, located 600 meters below the surface, are the lowest artificial point in Catalonia. The area of the municipality is 23.54 square kilometers. Its altitude is 281 meters above sea level. Súria is bordered by the territories of Navàs, Castellnou of Bages, Callús and Sant Mateu of Bages.
The improvement of the road of the Cardener axis in the last decades has made Súria a well connected municipality, 13 kilometers from the transverse axis by the link of Sant Joan de Vilatorrada and 15 kilometers from the axis of the Llobregat by Balsareny. Súria is 9 kilometers from Castelladral (Navàs), from where you can see a broad perspective of Central Catalonia.
Súria has a typical Mediterranean mountain climate, with an average maximum temperature of 32.5 degrees during the summer and a minimum average temperature of 1.3 degrees during the winter. The average annual rainfall is 550 liters per square meter, equivalent to 65 days of rain per year.
Súria is a point of great geological interest for the confluence of the Balsareny and Súria anticlines, separated by the fault of the Tordell. One of the places where the anticline of Balsareny emerges on the surface, the so-called Migmón, is one of the main symbols of Súria and is part of the shield of the town.
65 million years ago, the collision between the Iberian and Eurasian tectonic plates led to the creation of an inner sea that was trapped between the mountains of the Pyrenees, then in formation. The deepest zones were in central Catalonia and in Navarre, and received large amounts of fluvial sediments that became the origin of salt deposits as the waters of this inner sea evaporated until their total disappearance.
El Migmón is a geological structure that is the characteristic of Súria. It is a balsareny anticlinal fold, in which two layers of rock converge that do not link between them due to the intensity of the fold.
The name comes from a local tradition, according to which in this place the two halves of the world separated, given the peculiar form of the folding. The Migmón is part of the shield of Súria and has given name to the secondary school, organizations and to different commercial establishments of the city.
The Migmón is at the exit of the town in the direction of Cardona, on the right side of the road. A good place to see it is located in the neighborhood of Salipota, in the direction of the road, at the intermediate point between the cemetery and the mining facilities of the Cabanasses shaft.
History
The first inhabitants of Súria were the Iberians, who had colonized the peninsula in 3000 BC. In particular, those who were located in the Bages area were called Lacetans. They were invaded in 218 BC by the Carthaginians, who stayed there until they were defeated by the Romans in 195 BC. The Roman period in Súria lasted until 409 AD and during that time Súria was called Sorisa. The Roman Empire ended with the invasion of the barbarians who passed through Catalonia, but they did not stay permanently. After several battles those who stayed in Súria were the Visigoths until 476. Then they were pushed northwards by the new invaders, the Muslims.
In 720 Muslims invaded the Bages but in 732, as a result of the defeat of Poitiers (France), they withdrew and the Bages district was depopulated, hence Súria was no man’s land until 993, a year when it appears that there was a castle. In 1035 the terrain of Súria was part of the county of Barcelona, and since its counts were of Christian religion, it can be said that Christianity had already arrived to Súria in the XI century. The origin of the urban core of Súria must be sought at the end of the medieval era, although it was not until later (XVII and XVIII centuries) that it experienced its greatest growth and Súria became a fortified town, taking advantage of its natural location.
The year 1932 saw one of the main points of the uprising of the Alt Llobregat and the town remained isolated for four days, after the proclamation of libertarian communism.
In the context of the Spanish democratic transition, in July 1977, during a protest against the gala dance of the Festa Major, the firing of the weapon of one of the civil guards ended the life of Roque Peralta, resident of Manresa and father to three children. These facts, that shocked the inhabitants of this town of Bages, were never brought to justice.
Places of interest, travel guide and what to see?
The Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Súria (L’Església de Nostra Senyora del Roser de Súria) was the old part of the castle and the parish probably were. It appears cited in relation to the parish prior to 1154 as a parish of “Sorisa”. Of the Romanesque work erected in the XII century, only a small part of the nave, the apse and the bell tower are preserved, although modified by extensions. The apse is semicircular and was extended out in order to fortify it. The two constructive stages are very evident by the system and the quality of the building. In the center, a window opens, with a wide opening that houses a grille. Originally it must have been double-seized. In the southern part of the apse there is another Romanesque window, now walled, by two blocks of stone, in the form of columns, crowned by a monolithic block in the form of a semicircular arch. This arch has been decorated with geometric motifs and highlighted by archivolts. The bell tower consists of a basement and three floors, lacking ornamentation and only indicated by the windows.