Sant Pere Sacama

The Sant Pere hermitage is the former chapel of the Castell de Sacama (or Camba) castle, and is dedicated to the Apostle Peter. It is a single-nave chapel with a semi-circular Lombard apse and a bell tower in the shape of a small chair. The apse is all that remains of the old Romanesque chapel, built between 963 and 966 A.D. over the remains of an old Visigothic oratory. It is a magnificent looking construction, with fine masonry, Lombard arches and a small semicircular central window. The rest of the nave is the product of a subsequent reconstruction. The door faces west and has a lintel.

In 1985 and 1986, the Centre Muntanyenc i de Recerques Olesà carried out the most recent restoration work on the chapel. In the course of the work, two small recesses were discovered on each side of the central window of the apse, which still preserve fragments of a Romanesque mural painting.

In the archeological digs that have been conducted, significant findings have been made both within and outside the hermitage: the presence of an Iberian-era site dating back to the 2nd century B. C. and the remains of a dwelling classified as Carolingian and of a medieval necropolis (14th-15th century).

The chapel had a Baroque altarpiece with a central image of Saint Peter, and on either side, images of Saint Lucia and Saint Olivia, the patron saint of Olesa. Separated from the wall, suggestive of an ambulatory, is an area that was used as the sacristy, where there is evidence of the existence of an old Gothic altarpiece. The carvings were burned during the Spanish Civil War.

The Sant Pere Sacama castle was a small defensive construction built in the Carolingian era that guarded the route from Olesa to Vacarisses and Terrassa. Today, all that remains are pieces of a wall made of stones arranged in a herringbone pattern (opus spicatum).

Below the chapel was the Sant Pere farmhouse, which was in operation until the 1970s.

To the west of the castle on a small hill stood the Mas Vilar, dating back to the 11th century. Today, it is a pile of ruins where only the base of a circular tower and a couple of silos can be distinguished. From 1996 to 1998, an archeological excavation was carried out that has facilitated the documentation of the architectural evolution of a medieval farmhouse from its beginnings to its final abandonment. During the works, the skeleton of an individual from the medieval era was found, with signs of having been murdered and hidden inside one of the silos of the farmhouse. This discovery received special attention from the press and even appeared in an issue of National Geographic.

Although the hermitage can be viewed from outside, visitors must request the keys from the owner of the site to be able to enter.