Description
This small church, recently restored, is mentioned in 1035 in the will of the Count of Cerdanya, Guifré II, who left the church to his wife, who also left it to the monastery of Santa Maria de Serrateix.
However, this temple, like many in the area, was attacked by the men of Arnau de Castellbó, followers of the Cathar heresy, in the late twelfth century.
It is a small single-nave church with a slightly pointed barrel vault, topped on the east by a semicircular apse and a semicircular arched door at noon. Rows of opus spicatum can be seen on the west wall and the apse wall. The simple belfry is curiously off-center.
This simple building provided a jewel of late 13th century painting in Catalonia: the altar front of Sant Miquel and its anonymous artist, christened “the master of Soriguerola”.
This accomplished altar front is painted on wood and is exceptionally long. Archaeological excavations in 1999 located the location of a baldachin on the altar that matches the dimensions of this piece: therefore, it is possible that it was a Romanesque baldachin.
In 1936, a carving of the Virgin Mary from the beginning of the 13th century disappeared.
Plant and section
