La carta de poblament de Pinyeres (Batea, Terra Alta) (1280)

Abstract

The topic of this study is, on the one hand, the village of Pinyeres, nowadays depopulated (in the catalan area of the Terra Alta), that was annexed to the town and local administration of Batea (Tarragona) since 1841 and, on the other hand, the populating chart granted by the Templars of the castle of Miravet. Pinyeres' populating chart, granted in 1280, is also an agrarian establishment chart with exemptions, privileges and duties for the inhabitants who have a feudal link of vassalage with the landlords. The seigniorial concession to populate and the pay­ment of the rents obey the habits of Batea. There are seigniorial reserves on pasture; wood and stone pine including their fruit, besides the pre-emptive right. According to the chart, the Templars have full civil and criminal jurisdiction and «mero et mixto imperio» on the village and its inhabitants. The text of the chart, discovered by the author of this essay, is exposed here for the first time. Up to now, we only knew of a short reference in the first volume of Varia de Cancelleria of the Aragon Crown Archives in Barcelona, published by doctor Josep M.ª Font i Rius. The author gives a well-documented explanation of the village of Pinyeres' history and describes the urban centre, giving a special emphasis to the most representative buildings such as the church, the castle, the jail, the village square, the public oven and the mound of the gallows where stone gallows stood to execute the men under sentence of death. Using a long well-documented comment of the juridic populating chart, the author also explains the change of jurisdiction that the village of Pinyeres suffered when they passed to belong, during the xvth century, to the partisans of Saint John. It is when exchanging the towns of Jatiel and Samper de Calanda, that Pinyeres and Nonasp passed from the jurisdiction of the castle of Miravet to that of the convent of the Order of the Hospital of Casp.