Cardona | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 41°54′49″N 1°40′50″E / 41.91361°N 1.68056°E | |
Country | Spain |
Community | Catalonia |
Province | Barcelona |
Comarca | Bages |
Government | |
• Mayor | Ferran Estruch Torrents (2015)[1] |
Area | |
• Total | 66.7 km2 (25.8 sq mi) |
Elevation | 506 m (1,660 ft) |
Population (2018)[3] | |
• Total | 4,652 |
• Density | 70/km2 (180/sq mi) |
Website | www |
Cardona (Catalan pronunciation: [kəɾˈðonə]) is a town in the Spanish region of Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona; about 90 km (56 mi) northwest of the city of Barcelona, on a hill almost surrounded by the river Cardener, a branch of the Llobregat. To the east of the town, the river has been diverted through a tunnel has been dug through a spur, leaving a loop of dry river bed near the saltmine.
Near the town is an extensive deposit of rock salt. The salt forms a mountain mass (called Muntanya de Sal) covered by a thick bed of a reddish-brown clay, and apparently resting on a yellowish-grey sandstone. It is generally more or less translucent, and large masses of it are quite transparent. The hill has been worked like a mine since Roman times; pieces cut from it have been carved by artists in Cardona into images, crucifixes and many articles of an ornamental kind.[4]