Part of the tour from Folgueroles to Roda de Ter
We start the tour in front of the Verdaguer House Museum in Folgueroles, a small
town where the passage of time has left its mark with a number of remains from
the Iron Age and the Middle Ages.
We follow the road (Carrer Major) until we reach the square (Plaça
Verdaguer)
where the parish church of Santa Maria is situated. We continue in the direction
of the football pitch and then bear left towards La Damunt.
We then come to the Mare de Déu de la Damunt chapel, one of the key locations
associated with Verdaguer in Folgueroles. This is the
ermita
al cel suspesa (chapel suspended in the sky) we sing about in
L’Emigrant (The
Emigrant).
A magnificent panorama of the Vic Plain opens at this point with the
snowy
Pyrenees in the distance. Near the chapel, which was renovated in the
17th century, we find a small garden inspired by the poet’s book
Brins
d’espígol (Sprigs of Lavender).
We then cross a field following a track until we reach some old steps made of
stone slabs that serve as a way to avoid negotiating the slope that leads to
the Foquers house. Next we head towards the village of Tavèrnoles where
we can admire the Sant Esteve church, one of the best-preserved Romanesque buildings
in the area.
After carefully crossing the road, and going past the last few houses of the
village, we pass the grottoes (in Catalan,
baumes or
balmes),
and a house which bears their name – La Bauma. We continue along a stretch
of the GR 210 path
Camí Vora Ter (Path Along the Ter), until
Roda de Ter comes into view. Near the river, we can see the crags underneath
l’Esquerda,
the old Roda that appears in documents from the Middle Ages.
In the town of Roda de Ter, the birthplace of Miquel Martí i Pol, we pass
by some key places associated with the poet: above the La
Blava factory (where
Martí i Pol worked for 29 years), la
Plaçeta de les Tres Fonts and the
carrer de la Verge del Sòl del Pont, where we find the
house where Martí i Pol was born. We cross the old bridge across the River
Ter and end the tour at the Espai Miquel Martí i Pol, in the public library
next to the town’s main square (Plaça Major).
