Cardona Castle and Salt Mountain

Cardona sits above a geological oddity: a diapir, a dome of rock salt pushed up from a buried evaporite layer until it reaches the surface, forming a hill of salt that has been worked since the Neolithic and which made the local lords, the Cardona family, among the most powerful in Catalonia; they were called the uncrowned kings of Aragon. Their castle on the opposite hill holds the collegiate church of Sant Vicenc, consecrated in 1040, one of the earliest Lombard Romanesque buildings in Catalonia, with a crypt and a cloister; the rest is now a parador. The Salt Mountain park runs guided visits into galleries eighty-six metres below ground where the walls are banded salt in white, grey and pink.

What you actually see

• Sant Vicenc - a 1040 Lombard Romanesque church inside the castle.
• The salt galleries - guided routes eighty-six metres underground.
• The banded salt walls - white, grey and pink rock salt formations.
• The diapir hill - a surface outcrop of a deep salt dome.

When to go

March to June and September to November; the mine is a constant temperature year-round and works as a summer option. Mine tours are guided at set times and must be booked, particularly at weekends.

Honest expectations

Mine visits are guided only, with helmets issued and a bus down to the gallery level. Parts of the castle are a working hotel and closed. The two sites are on opposite hills with a drive between.

Nearby

Manresa and Montserrat lie southeast; Solsona is north.