Walking the Montroig campo - El Mas dels Tregells

What I love most about spontaneous make-it-up-as-we-go-

Marigold flower 

along walks around unknown places are the surprises we encounter en route. Dave plotted yesterday's circular route through the countryside (campo) around Montroig to be mostly along agricultural tracks (camis) with a couple of sections using dry river beds (barrancs). We were expecting to see the vegetable crops, olive trees, other harvestable trees, lots of squashed processional caterpillars, abandoned scrubland and the occasional barking dog. We did not expect to see brightly coloured orange and yellow verges of cultivated marigolds so were delighted to find ourselves walking past several of these areas. And we certainly did not expect to suddenly find ourselves passing a pseudo-Medieval castle! Fortunately said 'castle', El Mas dels Tregells, had an informative plaque outside explaining just what it was and how its appearance had come about.

El Mas dels Tregells 

This farmhouse is also known as Sant Rafael and during

Sant Rafael at El Mas dels Tregells 

the Middle Ages it was the centre of its own township. Pretty much all evidence of this town is now buried beneath its surrounding agricultural fields so the Mas stands alone looking either proudly impressive or a bit self conscious, depending on your point of view. At the end of the nineteenth century it was restored and given its current neo-Gothic look complete with side turrets, battlements and machicolations. Now, I admit we didn't know what machicolations were and I thought it might be a bizarre mistranslation from the Catalan (matacans) or Spanish (maracanes), but No! It's a real word in English for holes in the floor of the overhanging battlements through which rocks or boiling oil etc. could be dropped onto the heads of any optimistic attackers below. Good luck slipping that into conversation any time soon!

Our planned two hours walking turned into three as we got ourselves somewhat lost by relying on signposts instead of Dave's intuition. This did allow us to see a fabulous murmuration of hundreds of starlings coming into roost. The flock made the most incredible shapes in the sky and I loved watching them for several minutes. I don't remember seeing birds in these numbers in the UK for at least a couple of decades now. Is that because they are just not in our skies anymore or have I just been in the wrong place? Sadly I couldn't get an image for this post as my phone isn't remotely up to that!

So I will leave you instead without another plant picture. We don't know what this is and, judging by where it was growing, it is probably nothing special at all, but its leaves were the most gorgeous red colour in the sunshine.

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The Barracas of Montroig del Camp

Do you remember that a few weeks ago Dave and I visited

Barraca del Tutu

the Joan Miro museum in Montroig del Camp? Part of the museum had been turned over to an interesting photographic exhibition documenting the building of a number of barraques / barracas in the nearby countryside. Yesterday we finally got around to doing a walk which would allow us to see some of these structures in situ. We drove to the barraca named Barraca del Tutu which is numbered 1 on our map - Senderisme Mont Roig i Miami Platja - and parked up before setting out on foot, complete with picnic lunch, to explore. Several of the barracas are signposted from the T-310, but we didn't initially realise this as we drove along that road. If you're looking for them too, watch out for handmade signs with a capital letter B and a number pointing off down dirt tracks!

Barraca doble de Cal Rabosa 

A barraca is essentially a small rural shelter and I have

Inside Barraca del Tutu 

seen the word translated into English as meaning anything from a workmen's hut to an Eskimo igloo. The Montroig barracas use ancient building techniques to create domed stone structures with a simple arched doorway. There aren't any windows although we saw several that had small alcoves inside, presumably for candles or lanterns. Stones high up inside the roof were often blackened by smoke and there is no chimney hole. I guess fire smoke dissipates through gaps between the stones. Generally no fixing substance - such as mortar - is used so it's a bit like dry stone walling in the UK. Looking inside, I was also reminded of the one of the dolmen we saw at Antequera almost exactly two years ago (although not the one pictured in this post). These barracas feel timeless!

Seeing the fields and orchards in this part of Catalonia

explains immediately where all the building stone comes from and I wondered which came first - the need to have small shelters or the need to do something with all this rock! Hill slopes are terraced, again with immense volumes of rock, and there must have been incredible work needed to actually create viable agricultural land here. What is sad to see is where formerly worked land has been abandoned and allowed to revert to scrubland again. The effort required to get it usable again may never make economic sense.

The barracas are all slightly different shapes and designs,

and vary in size. The smallest were tiny huts where we had to crouch to get through the door and probably no more than a couple of people could be seated together. The largest we saw, I think, was this one for which I got Dave to stand in the photo to really give you an idea of its scale. As most of the barracas didn't have name plaques beside them and weren't always where they appeared to be on the map, we did have trouble not only finding them, but also identifying the ones we did see! I think the large barraca pictured here is Barraca dels Communs del Pellicer, but it could be Barraca de l'Aiguader.

Perhaps the most spectacular, and certainly the easiest to

Barraca 'en espiral' 

identify(!), is Barraca 'en espiral' meaning, obviously, in a spiral. This one looks fabulous from the outside, but has no sign of its spiral construction on the inside.

It was very close to another barraca that we probably wouldn't have been able to name had we not seen them almost as a pair. Pictured below, Barraca dels Lliris was the only one we saw which had plants growing on it. I didn't know what the plant was, but it looked to have been deliberately planted all across the roof. Maybe this helps with waterproofing? Maybe it is just for decoration?

Barraca dels Lliris 

There are dozens of barracas across the Montroig area and we only saw a fraction of them. Most aren't directly alongside the camis (agricultural tracks) or footpaths so require shortish detours to find them. Plus, being made of the same stone as much of their surroundings, they blend in remarkably well!

Joan Miro in Montroig and the Ermita Mare de Deu de la Roca

Chris and Marta drove us all the short distance from

Cambrils to Montroig del Camp yesterday so we could all take a look at the Joan Miro museum, enjoy a very well priced lunch, and head out on a walk to a most precarious Ermita.

Joan Miro first went to Montroig in 1911, recuperating from illness brought on by harsh working conditions as an apprentice. His family owned an estate near the village and Miro soon came to love the rural lifestyle, returning there every summer for sixty-five years. A museum in his honour, the Centre Miro, was opened in the disused church of St Michael in 2004. It displays a number of reproductions of his locally painted works along with relevant artefacts and a video interview with the artist himself. As the building itself dates from 1194, it is also interesting in its own right and has a beautiful ceiling and rose window.

Centre Miro costs €3 for adults (€2 for pensioners) and is

Miro painting model 

certainly worth this much! It doesn't just have Miro. At the moment there is also a fascinating section dedicated to photographs of the barraques which are five restored stone-built traditional huts. The craftsmanship needed to build a barraque is amazing. My favourite displays were the wonderfully detailed models. There are half a dozen three dimensional recreations of Miro paintings lined up in the foyer. One is pictured here and I liked it because it includes a row of intertwined tomato plant canes which, we learned, were Miro's inspiration for his often used star motifs. Another large model actually inside the museum showed the whole village, complete with details such as vegetables growing in little allotments and washing hung out to dry on roof terraces. One street surface was even covered with a replica of a Miro design - we also learned that his famous bold abstracts are reproduced in coloured wood shavings along Montroig's streets during their annual Miro festival.

Montroig village model 

The tallest building in the above model is the new church

Mural inside St Miquel 

dedicated to St Miquel Arcangel de Mont-roig del Camp. We were lucky to be passing the real version at a time when its doors were open so took the opportunity to look inside. It's fabulously decorated yet remarkably restrained by Spanish Catholic standards. There was hardly any gilt and the altar statue of St Miquel was made from natural wood. Most of the walls are covered with murals all showing religious scenes, but with the people painted in a very modern style. A cross-shaped stained glass window had large panes in solid colours - pinks and blues, which produced a stunning effect on the inside walls and the overall atmosphere was tranquil and serene.

After a €9.50 all in Menu Del Dia lunch, we were almost too

Ermita Mare de Deu de la Roca 

stuffed to attempt walking to the Ermita Mare de Deu de la Roca. In the photo to the right you can see it as the white square perched at the very edge of its rocky outcrop! It didn't feel a lot safer once we were up there! The walk from Montroig only took about an hour and was mostly a reasonably gradual incline along the New Road. The rocks are a stunning red colour, the colour from which the town takes its name, and I was intrigued by their curved erosion patterns where water has flowed through in the past. The effect is almost like that of a sponge and is said to be a possible inspiration for some of Gaudi's architectural creations.

Montroig red rock 

Once up at the Ermita and its sanctuary, the views out across the Costa Dourada and out to sea are spectacular. Our luck also brought us a remarkably clear non-hazy day. I am pleased with this photo of Dave taken from the Ermita entrance patio. There is a flight of stone steps in front of him, but it appears that the cliff just falls away!

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