Plana, Anna, i Romero, Sergi, La volta a peu a la Garrotxa, Llibres de Batet, Olot, 2021

Travel guide to get to know this land on foot and to discover, village by village, many of its attractions. It is conceived as a 10-stage route that allows you to spend each night in a different village, plus another stage that, starting from Olot, explores the surroundings of the city.
The guide describes step by step the itinerary of the proposed 10 + 1 stages, and provides all the data for each one, with a small map of the route and its profile. In each stage it also highlights a treasure, suggests what is worth seeing and what to take into account. A QR code links directly to the track of the corresponding stage, ensuring that no one gets lost.
Two pages for notes, after each stage, allow the traveller to personalise it and turn it into a journey entirely their own, the result of that precise moment when they undertake it and where the elements will come together to create a unique scenario.

Gironell, Martí, Paraula de jueu, Columna, Barcelona, 2020

After the success of The Bridge of the Jews, one of the best-selling historical novels in Catalan, comes its long-awaited sequel, Word of a Jew. Master builder Pere Baró is commissioned by the royal town of Besalú to rebuild the bridge that three hundred years earlier had been erected by the builder Prim Llombard. A flood has destroyed it, threatening the city’s expansion and commercial position. A young Jew, Kim, a descendant of the Llombard family, finds a way to take part in the works, which will be halted for reasons he will be compelled to investigate.

A medieval and vital adventure led by Kim and Ester, a young Christian woman who works between the Hospital of Almoina in Barcelona and the Jewish quarter. Through them we witness how Jews and Christians lived their complex reality while delving into the customs of the 14th century. The power of words, the strength of convictions, love and respect as essential ingredients for building a bridge of understanding between the two religions. A task that will prove far from easy, as they will encounter people on both sides determined to prevent it.

Vilar, Josep, Històries de l'Alta Garrotxa, Editorial Gavarres, Cassà de la Selva, 2019

Stories from Alta Garrotxa tells of tales of war, smuggling, farm work, shepherds, hikers, priests, tragedies and murders. Stories of hard and sacrificial lives, of survival with scarce resources. This work by Josep Vilar has been made possible thanks to the informants, many of them now gone, who opened the doors of their homes and their hearts to him, to share fragments, sometimes intimate, of their lives which, ultimately, are the story of the whole community.

Maragall Gorina, Joan, Obres completes. Poesia i teatre, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 2010

More than fifty years after the Selecta edition, a new edition of the complete works of Joan Maragall.
The new edition of Maragall’s complete works, necessary more than fifty years after the Selecta edition, is an initiative of the Maragall Archive, in which a team of specialists has worked extensively. The project is coming to light in 2020, with the publication of the volume that brings together all of Maragall’s original poetry and theatre.

The main feature of this volume is that it presents all of Maragall’s poetry, both the published collections and dispersed works, including the tragedy Nausica as the culmination of the author’s poetic career. The work is presented in a critical edition, with an extensive record of known forms of each poem, a complete apparatus of variants, and a series of notes that help readers better understand the poems and relate them to relevant episodes in Maragall’s biography.

The poet spent summers in Olot, and even dedicated a famous poem to the Fageda d’en Jordà. Today, the most popular itinerary for visiting this natural reserve bears his name.

Gironell, Martí, El Pont dels Jueus, Columna, Barcelona, 2007

A thrilling novel about the construction of a historic bridge. Master builder Prim Llombard is commissioned by the Count of Besalú to build a fortified bridge. Although the townspeople see this work as providential, the builder soon faces the obstacles of a plot designed to help another lord seize control of the county. The conspirators use all the powers at their disposal, both natural and supernatural, to achieve their goal. Confined to the Jewish quarter, the Jewish community becomes an indispensable ally in the attempt to stop this assault.

Cercas Mena, Javier, Soldiers of Salamis, Tusquets Editores, Barcelona, 2001

The central focus of the novel revolves around the real figure of Rafael Sánchez Mazas, writer and ideologue of the Falange Española, close collaborator of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, and in particular the episode in which he escaped his execution. The Spanish Civil War is coming to an end, and the Nationalist troops are advancing towards Catalonia. The retreating Republican troops destroy bridges and communication routes to cover their flight.

Sánchez Mazas, imprisoned in Barcelona, escapes from a mass execution at the sanctuary of El Collell (Mieres). When they search for him, a Republican soldier who had just moved all the prisoners by dancing to the pasodoble Suspiros de España finds him, points his rifle at him but ultimately spares his life and lets him go. Sánchez Mazas hides in the forest and receives help from a group of peasants, whom he will later repay after the war is over.

The author, Javier Cercas, becomes a character in the novel: a journalist investigating this event before writing the book. There are several signposted routes that allow visitors to explore the novel’s settings.

Teixidor Comes, Joan, Fluvià, Ed. Columna, Barcelona, 1989

Fluvià is the book that concludes Teixidor’s entire poetic work, with a total of 26 autobiographical poems, and offers a beautiful and moving summary of the author’s life. Following this literary itinerary along the upper Fluvià, visitors can explore the landscapes described in the poetry collection.

Verdaguer Santaló, Jacint, Canigó, Selecta, Barcelona, 1980

After L’Atlàntida (1877), Idylls and Mystical Songs (1879) and two volumes on Montserrat themes (1880), the publication of Canigó (1885) marked the confirmation of Jacint Verdaguer’s poetic genius (Folgueroles 1845—Vallvidrera 1902) and the culmination of our literary Renaixença. Conceived as a romantic legend, Canigó also contains elements that allow for a symbolist reading, within the context of the new poetry of the time. Its mythical-patriotic component, and its exceptional linguistic and formal achievements, make it an essential reference work in contemporary Catalan literature. Verdaguer wrote parts of this work from the sanctuary of Mare de Déu del Mont (Albanyà), which can be reached on foot via different itineraries.

Vayreda Vila, Marian, La punyalada, La Ilustració Catalana, Barcelona, 1904

La punyalada (The Stab) is the most important work of the writer from Olot, Marià Vayreda i Vila. It is a psychological exploration through the autobiographical memory of a character, and it is considered one of the great Catalan novels marking the transition from the realist tradition. La punyalada is Vayreda’s third work, published posthumously in 1904, the year he died while correcting the proofs of the first edition.

This edition was published in the magazine La Il·lustració Catalana, without a prologue and with illustrations by Josep Berga i Boix and Josep Berga i Boada. The novel is, in its approach, a prelude to Modernisme. Received with great enthusiasm, it became a landmark of literary realism. Part of the novel takes place in the area between Sadernes and Sant Aniol d’Aguja, which can be visited through various itineraries, such as this one.

Vayreda Vila, Marian, Records de la darrera carlinada, Impremta de N. Planadevall, Olot, 1898

When the Third Carlist War broke out (1872–1876), the young Olot-born Marian Vayreda, son of a rural minor noble family, joined the Carlist army. Serving in the cavalry corps, he eventually became part of General Savalls’ staff. For nearly three years, he took part in significant actions until he was wounded in the hand. At the end of the war, he went into exile in France.

Twenty-five years later, and with a perspective that time had turned disillusioned towards the ideals of youth, Marian Vayreda, by then both painter and writer, recounted the various episodes —between the caricaturesque and the pathetic— that he had lived during the war. Written with subjectivity but also with vigour and precision, Memories of the Last Carlist War form a disenchanted and demystifying chronicle of the absurdity of war.

Memories of the Last Carlist War is also the name given to one of the 15 thematic proposals of Garrotxa Cultour, specifically the one that brings together the sites related to the Carlist Wars.