Cardona

Cardona stands in the Catalan interior beside the Cardener valley. A castle overlooks the town, while a nearby salt mountain supplied a valuable resource. The lords of Cardona held rights over the salt deposit, and in 1491 the duchy of Cardona was created with its exploitation among its possessions.

The castle remained a fortified seat through later conflicts. In 1714, during the War of the Spanish Succession, its garrison was among the last to surrender to forces supporting Philip V. Salt extraction and the hilltop fortress tied Cardona's local history to the politics of Catalonia and the Crown of Aragon.