The town

The town

Os de Balaguer is a cozy and quiet village with only 400 inhabitants that still keeps the warmth of small Catalonia towns.

Although formerly it was a walled town, today you can still find some steep and narrow streets, with facades and portals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Services

You will love our artisan products! Buy them in our bakery, butcher shop, wine cellar, oil mills and in the honey and nougat factory, “Alemany” ; all homemade.

Pools

If you come in summer, you will spend much of your time in the swimming pool of the village. It has a bar and a terrace, a playground for the kids and wonderful views of the mountain.

Church

The Church of “Sant Miquel” dates from 1769 and has a baroque facade. According to the manuscripts of the time, it was built in only one year.

This Church helds every year the festival “Els Campaners” in honour to the men and women who have rang the bells, historically, to inform the population about different news.

Illustrious sons of Os de Balaguer

Leandre Cristòfol is one of the illustrious sons of Os de Balaguer. Mainly self-taught, he received the “Creu de Sant Jordi” award and part of his work is permanently exhibited at the MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya). You can visit his birthplace, home to part of his creative legacy.

Antonio Peralba Camarasa (1886-1974), also born in Os, was Leandre Cristofol’s cousin. Besides being a renowned pedagogue of the time, also showed great artistic talent in sculpture, drawing, painting and writing. Both of them were Maria Peralba’s cousins, Cal Tató’s matriarch. Maybe this is where some of the family descendants have inherited outstanding artistic skills in music, painting, sculpture, drawing… who knows!

Former President of Costa Rica (“Don Pepe” Figueres) and Gaspar de Portolà, California’s explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterrey, were also born in Os de Balaguer.

Castle and museum of bells

Located on a hilltop, the Castle –known as “Malignum Castrum”- dates from the eleventh century and its origins are Islamic.

Today it hosts the “Bells Museum of Catalonia” where you can learn about the bells musical tones, the old skill of “campanero” and what the bells mean to the inhabitants in Os.