The Selva Castle was for centuries the stately residence of the prefects of Tarragona and the archbishops of the metropolis. It belonged to the Papordia of the archbishop of Tarragona, and was probably built at the end of the 12th century. It was a residence very frequented by the paborde, but it mainly served as a storehouse for nuts and tithes.
In 1411 Pope Benedict XIII decreed the abolition of the pabordia and the Castle was administered directly by the Archbishop of Tarragona and in the s. In the 16th century, the building was expanded with residential buildings and an upper floor accessed by a staircase.
The action of the Constituent Courts during the Biennium of 1822 ended, in fact, with the lordships. This work was complemented by the confiscation laws of the middle of the 19th century, and thus the Selva Castle would become the property or usufruct of the Town Council.
Passing through various users after the ecclesiastical confiscation, the Castle, the town's largest heritage building had become a ruin that the Selvatans have lived with for decades.
Finally, in a municipal economic boom, the City Council, entering the new millennium, decided to carry out an ambitious project such as that of restoring the monument and giving it a function of public use in accordance with its identity , a first-rate cultural facility.