Les Garrigues Olive Oil Theme Park

Parque Temático del Aceite de las Garrigues

The park, which opened to the public in 1998, aims to teach visitors about the process of olive cultivation and olive-oil production.

The starting point for its creation was the research by the director of the Catalonia National Archive, Josep María Sans y Travé and Juan Fuguet y Sans, PhD in History of Art, on some Medieval architectural finds relating to the tower of La Sala and its knights.

References to the bishop of “Lleida” (Lerida), the Tower knights and the taxes collected in olive oil, in a 35-page manuscript of 1264, now in the National Archive of Catalonia, suggest that the region’s inhabitants were involved in the production of olive oil. This confirms the jurisdiction of the Tower over four centuries. Six large 17^th-century oil tanks were found in the basement of the Tower.

In 1990 the Riera brothers purchased the Tower in order to restore it, in accordance with the 13^th century plans.

The journey through the history of the olive is completed in the garden, where there is an olive tree about 1400 years old. Named “The Grandfather”, it is considered to be one of the 50 oldest olive trees in the world.