The Conca de Barberà is a basin of vineyards and wheat, ringed by the Prades mountains, and Montblanc is its capital. The town is still wrapped in medieval walls, with towers and gates that have survived mostly intact, and the narrow streets inside are lined with Gothic houses and a church with a notable altarpiece. Local legend places the story of Saint George and the dragon here, and at the festival of Saint George every year the town re-enacts it with great enthusiasm. The Abric de la Baridana I lies about seven and a half kilometres from the town, in the hills to the south-west.
It is one of the rock shelters of the region that carry prehistoric paintings, part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art that UNESCO listed in 1998. The shelters of the Prades hills are small and shallow, and the figures are few and faint.
The Conca is also the heart of the Cistercian Route, which links the great monasteries of Poblet, Santes Creus and Vallbona de les Monges, three abbeys founded in the twelfth century as Catalonia expanded south. Poblet in particular, a few kilometres from Montblanc, is a vast fortified monastery that was a royal burial place, and it is one of the finest of its kind in Europe, listed by UNESCO in 1991. It is well worth combining with the shelter.
The riding here is relaxed and lovely. Roads wind between vineyards and almond groves, climb gently through pine woods, and descend into valleys, with moderate bends and good surface, and the traffic is light outside the weekends. The Prades hills have sharper roads for those who want more, though the climbs are not long. In summer the heat is fierce, and in winter the wind can be sharp.
Montblanc has some six and a half thousand people, with fuel, bakeries and several restaurants, and Vimbodí and Alcover are smaller neighbours. The local cooking features calçots, grilled spring onions dipped in romesco sauce, in the winter and early spring, and the wines of the Conca de Barberà are a pleasant surprise. Visit in spring or autumn for the best light.