Barcelona · Cataluña
Cardona
A medieval hilltop village clinging to a castle-crowned slope above a salt mountain, cradle of the powerful Cardona family, 'lords of salt.'
Why people fall for Cardona
Portrait drawn from the Michelin Green Guide.
12.4 miles southeast of Solsona, on the Cardener plain.
Worth the trip
- The Sant Vicenç castle and Collegiate Church, a jewel of Lombard Romanesque art in Catalonia (built 1040)
- The Parc Cultural de la Muntanya de Sal, a unique salt-mountain mine with transparent stalactites and stalagmites
A little history
The castle was the cradle of the powerful Cardona family, nicknamed the 'lords of salt.'
Who it suits: Castle and geology enthusiasts
Who Cardona is for — and who it isn't
Not our opinion: we ran the same scoring engine behind the quiz for six settler profiles across all 8,132 municipalities and read off where Cardona lands.
Cardona is mid-pack for all six profiles we score (between the 50th and 80th percentile) — a solid all-rounder, a standout for nobody. Your own priorities may read it differently: that's what the quiz is for.
The numbers
The decision data — each figure placed among all Spanish municipalities that report it ("top 10%" always means good, also where lower is better). Regional overlays and estimates are labelled, and where there's no local reading we say so plainly.
Climate
- Winter average temp
- 7.7°C top 42% of 8,131 towns 0.1°C below the Spanish average (7.8°C)
- Summer high (Jul–Aug)
- 31.6°C bottom 32% of 8,131 towns 1.4°C above the Spanish average (30.2°C)
- Rainy days a year
- 54 days top 25% of 8,088 towns 22% less than the Spanish average (69 days)
- Sunshine estimated
- 7.2 h/day bottom 31% of 3,829 towns about the Spanish average (7.2 h/day)
- Summer water stress (WEI+) regional estimate
- 73 bottom 31% of 8,033 towns 16 above the Spanish average (56)
Cost & economy
- Home price
- no local data
- Net income per person
- €15,730 top 31% of 8,059 towns 9% more than the Spanish average (€14,495)
- Income growth ’18–’23
- 16.8% bottom 10% of 6,605 towns
Schools
- Schools in town
- 5 top 12% of 7,042 towns
- Nearest international school
- 50 km bottom 46% of 8,132 towns
- PISA maths (region) regional estimate
- 469 #12 of 17 regions, −10 vs national 12 below the Spanish average (481)
Healthcare
- Drive to a hospital
- 27 min top 36% of 8,132 towns
- Nearest health centre
- 1.9 km top 8% of 7,025 towns
- Surgical wait (region) regional estimate
- 142 days #16 of 17 regions, +39 days vs national 32% more than the Spanish average (108 days)
Getting around
- Drive to nearest airport
- 88 min bottom 35% of 8,132 towns
- Fibre-to-home coverage
- 70% bottom 20% of 8,132 towns 9% below the Spanish average (79%)
- 100 Mbps+ coverage
- 88% bottom 34% of 8,132 towns 5% above the Spanish average (83%)
Who lives here
- Population
- 4,540
- Born in Spain
- 89.6% 0.8% above the Spanish average (88.8%)
- Born elsewhere in EU/UK
- 1% 2.8% below the Spanish average (3.8%)
- U.S.-born residents
- 0.44 per 1,000
Numbers: SpainScore town dataset, derived from INE, AEMET, Mitma and the Catastro. Percentile chips count only the municipalities that report the figure — the "of n" says how many. Region-ranked figures (PISA, surgical waits) compare Spain's 17 comunidades autónomas. A blank means no municipal-level figure is published — not a zero.
The year, month by month
AEMET 30-year climate normals — what a January or an August actually feels like, not the annual average.
How does Cardona fit you?
These are the town's numbers. Whether it's your town depends on what you're optimising for — winter sun or mild summers, a city or a village, short medical waits, an easy flight home. The 3-minute quiz scores Cardona against every one of Spain's 8,132 municipalities on your priorities. It sits about 34 min from Manresa, if that's your anchor.
Take the quiz — rank Cardona for you →Nearby towns
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