The popular architecture offers a different and original perspective to the visitor. It is one of the clearest exemples of the human intervention in the environment beyond the big religious and civil constructions. The cottages and edges together with the ovens and the cattle pens are the most important exemples. Don’t miss this architecture. .

The cottages

The arched cottage is a small and simple dwelling very typical in the inner regions, from la Noguera to la Terra Alta, without putting aside its presence in other places of the catalane geography. At the same time several vineyard huts can be found this place. Concerning the chronology, the real expansion of these constructions seem to be beetwen the 18^th and middle 20^th century, with a much more constructive incidence stage beetwen the second half of 19^th and 20^th century. This fact is linked to the cultivated surface increase because of the sale or the surrender of  the unproductive lands of the nobles, the conversion of the communal woods or because of the privatization of some land extensions.

The arched cottage gained ground after some time, and some new elements and constructive aesthetics were introduced. But its construction technique, adaptable depending on the place and always using the materials the peasant has within his reach, has always been the same: after doing the foundations, the lateral walls are built until arriving to the elevation needed for the arch. This space,delimited by the two lateral walls and often by the closing wall was filled with ground until reaching the definitive height and giving the desired arch shape. With the mould, the roof stones were put, always following regular rows alternately by both sides until reaching the middle of the roof  crowned by a row cut in proportion and took in  very carefully. The next step was to stretch all the stones by means of some splinters and by dint of maul to go on with the reinforcement of the lateral walls. Then the ground of the dwelling was emptied out which was used as a mould and now used to cover and reinforce the roof, which was finished off with a line of slabs in all th ehunt perimetre. Finally, the façades were worked, depending on if the hunt was totally exempt or made benefit of the ground or the edges to be built. The orientation was usually with the entry façade to the south and was used as a shelter for the farmer or the animals. With the fields mechanizatiothey lost their function and were abandoned and forgotten.

The edges

La Segarra has a quite broken morphological aspect where the flat ground extensions are scanty and on the other hand hills and elevations surrounded by little valleys full of streams and torrents are abundant. This physionomy has obliged to practise a kind of constructions which could allow to safe the ground unevenness and make good use of the land for cultivation. This kind of practice, which can be dated in the medieval time, had a special development, starting the 18^th century to first half of the 20^th.

The basic constructive element of the edges is the stone (autochtonous) which is polished in a freestone shape or without being polished, used without any link material (technique of the dry stone). The dimensions of the stone can vary depending on the constructive technique and on the land carachteristics.

We can distinguish 3 different kind of edges wall:

1. By means of a line of big stones, with more or less freestones on its base, to finish with a higher line with also some more or less polished freestones.

2. With irregular stones and freestones, more or less big wedged by more little stones, forming this way the most common kind of wall.

3. With squared freestones, generally arranged in a row forming an inclined wall and spread out at intervals with a wiser and more resistant base.