Part of the tour from Roda de Ter to Folgueroles
Starting the tour from Roda de Ter, we set off from the Espai Miquel Martí i Pol tracing the final section of the walk from Folgueroles to Roda.
From the Plaça Major we follow the GR 210 for a good distance. Before leaving the village we pass by the house where the poet was born, the La
Blava factory and the house he lived in during his years at the factory.
After leaving Roda de Ter we reach a superb vantage point. From here we can see where the Ter leaves the plain to start meandering its way between steep rocks before heading towards the Vall
de Sau. Following the signposts, we head towards Serrabou, surrounded by meadows and magnificent views of the Vic Plain and, further in the distance, the foothills of the Pyrenees.
Continuing our walk along meadowlands, we pass by the spot on the left known
as
Roques del Cós, where a tragic crime known as the
Crim
de les Degollades took
place (when a number of young women were found with their throats cut). Roda
had become one of the main industrial centres of the Ter basin with Folgueroles
supplying the labour, mainly women. Thus, Roda began to enter the modern era,
changing from an agricultural town to an industrial town, from a rural to an
urban area. So it happened that one night in 1859 a group of young women were
returning to their homes in Folgueroles from the factory in Roda de Ter when
they were attacked. Four of them died after having their throats savagely cut.
The
Crim de les Degollades (or Crim de les roques del Cós) provides
a new symbolic dimension to the literary symbolism of Verdaguer (from Folgueroles)
in the 19th century and Martí i Pol (from Roda de Ter) in the 20th century. The
romanç de
cec (folktale) about the attack and murder of the young women, the arrest
of the suspects, their being sentenced to death and their execution by garrotting
at
Roques del Cós, the site of the murders, is an uncanny example of
historical realism and popular literature.
The path continues to the asphalt road that goes to Tavèrnoles (and that should be crossed with caution). We continue in the same direction walking between cultivated fields. Following the signposts, we arrive at the outskirts of Folgueroles where we continue along the path that takes us into Carrer
Bellmunt, then through Plaça de l’Era before reaching the Verdaguer House Museum.
