Located on top of a craggy hill above the river Noguera Pallaresa and at the entrance to the waterbasin stands the Mur Castle and the old Augustinian canonry of Santa Maria de Mur, which was built by the Counts of El Pallars.


Ramon V and Valença started to build a church around the year 1057. Its construction was then continued by their son, Pere Ramon, who had it consecrated in 1069. Nevertheless, it was not until 1098 that the community of canons adopted the rule of Saint Augustine. In April 1099, Pere Ramon, with an act of endowment, transferred or confirmed in possession goods and rights to the canonry and linked it directly to the Holy See, as a result of which the Provostry of Mur became an administration exempt from the Bishops of Urgell; its priors or provosts exercised ordinary jurisdiction over a dozen churches and some priories, were able to call synods and had seats on the councils of Tarragona.


In spite of these privileges, canonical life began to decline at the end of the 14th century. In 1592, the canonry was secularised and turned into a collegiate church, although it did retain its exemption. In 1851, it lost all its privileges and became a simple rural parish church.


The church originally had a nave and two side aisles covered with a barrel vault and transverse rib arches and ended in three semi-circular apses. The north aisle, which partially collapsed, was turned into a series of chapels and the apsidiole was made into a sacristy. On the outside the apses are decorated with lesenes and blind arcatures. The paintings which decorated the nave are now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (EUA), and are regarded as some of the best examples of Romanesque painting abroad. Other remains of paintings are kept in the Museu d'Art de Catalunya although a small, very scorched, part of the collection remains in situ.


To the west of the church and some distance from the axis of the nave are the 12th century cloisters with the monastery outbuildings. This unusual location is the result of the lie of the land, as cloisters are normally built next to the southern end of the church or, in exceptional cases, to the north. Recently, the remains of the Count de Pallars Jussà Ramon V, who died at the end of the 11th century, have been found in the church's nave.


Santa Maria de Mur was declared a Historical and Artistic Monument in 1920 as was the castle by a Decree dated 22nd April 1949, included in the 1985 Spanish Historical Heritage Act.