CAMARLES

Camarles (29.00 km2, 2,868 inhabitants) is one of the most modern towns with a better perspective of growth of the low Ebro . It consists of the nucleus of Camarles, the Granadella and the lligallos of the Roig and the Gànguil. It is described as the “Viewpoint of the Delta” because the town is a few meters higher than the delta plain, a place where formerly the sea arrived. Only the third part of the term (931 has) is deltaica. It does not reach the sea by one narrow strip of the municipality of L'Ampolla . In medieval times the only residents were the defenders of the towers of Camarles and the Granadella, buildings that have been restored. The castle or tower of Camarles is circular made of stone, erected on an old Islamic farmhouse. The one at Granadella is square. In 1150, Ramon Berenguer IV donated the castle of Camarles to Guillem de Sunyer, and the one at Granadella to the bishop at Gaufred

On the outskirts of the Bordissal, to few meters of the old coast, at the beginning of 50's around thirty terracotta figures were discovered with a female representation attributed to the Tanit goddess. In the following excavations a series of ancients walls and a silo were found, as well as black varnished ceramics. It was an Iberian settlement from IV to III a.c. At the beginning of the XX century, the population of the present town of Camarles did not surpass a hundred inhabitants. The development came with the left channel of the Ebro (1912). In 1956 the Rice Cooperative was created and in the later years wells have been opened and have greatly increased the citruses and vegetables in lands where olive trees had once been. Also bird-raising farms have been built. Camarles it is an affluent urbanized town, of straight and wide streets, with gardens and walking areas. It has the parochial church of Santo Jaume . The lligallos of the Gànguil and the Roig have also grown and have the modern church of Sant Joan Baptista . The A-7 motorway, the N-340, two highways towards Deltebre and the railway line Tarragona-València cross the municipality. Along the N-340 construction companies have settled, with other industries, as well as leisure centres. The recent urbanization (1992) of the industrial estate Nova Sale, also next to the N-340, created many possibilities of work in Camarles and towns of the delta.