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| Arriving to Tamariu, Baix Empordà |
Today, The Grandma and her friends have arrived to Aigua Xelida in Tamariu, the end of their coastal route after five days walking and discovering the natural and cultural treasures of this part of the Costa Brava.
It has been a wonderful trip and the friends are exhausted after all these hours of walking. It has been an incredible feat but this is a land of exploits and all of them are perfectly documented in Ramon Muntaner's Chronicle, one of the four Catalan Grand Chronicles that explains life and conquests of the kings of the House of Aragon, the House of Mallorca and the House of Sicily all belonged to the lineage of the Casal de Barcelona.
The friends have enjoyed an unforgettable day on the beach, visiting the most beautiful coves meanwhile Jordi Santanyí and The Grandma have been remembering some chapters of this amazing Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner.
A trip is a project and all the projects have a beginning and an end but the most important objective is not only to arrive, the most important one is to enjoy new experiences, to learn new stories, to discover new places and to meet new people because this is life, a way to learn every day.
After arriving to Cala Marquesa, the last cove of the route, the group has enjoyed their last moments diving, taking sun and photos and swimming while The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her Ms. Excel course.
Chapter 15. Import and export data in Excel (V) (Spanish Version)
FROM CALA PEDROSA TO AIGUA XELIDA
Departure point: Cala Pedrosa.
Arrival point: Aigua Xelida.
Distance: 3,970 m.
Duration: 2 hours.
Type of path: A path going through the forest, along rocks, road and coastal path.
Description of the route: from Cala Pedrosa to Tamariu, a path that winds between pine forests and rocks, following the GR-92, as far as Tamariu. From this point on, go by road or get back on the coastal path at the end of Carrer de l’Illa Blanca.
Points of interest: Cala Pedrosa, La Musclera, La Perica, Tamariu, Aigua Xelida, Sa Roncadora, Cala Marquesa.
Recommendations: follow the red and the white markers of the GR-92, do not take this route if there is an easterly storm, use comfortable footwear and take water.
Description
Once in Cala Pedrosa, follow the steps that lead up from towards the north, following the GR-92. You will come to La Musclera and La Perica, which is frequented by people fishing and you will finally come to Tamariu. From here you cannot follow the coastal road to the north. One way of getting to the coves of Aigua Xelida is by car along the road or on foot going around a series of residential estates and taking the coastal path.
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| Visiting Aigua Xelida and Tamariu |
By road, take Carrer dels Pescadors, turn along Carrer d’Aigua Blava and carry along Avinguda de Vicenç Bou. When you come to a roundabout, carry along Carrer del Montgrí and Carrer de l’Avi Xaixu to the end, where you will take some steps that lead to the large beach of En Gotes (Aigua Xelida). If you carry on to the left, you can take the coastal path to the north to get to Sa Roncadora, although it is not recommended: the path is not signposted and there are a lot of brambles.
However if you do follow it, you will discover a cleft in the rock which has its entrance in the sea and its exit on dry land, forming a bridge over itself, which on days when there is a easterly storm bellows (giving it its name) when the sea water crashes into it and then spurts out a few metres on, in the air, sprinkling the surrounding pine trees.
Further to the north you would get to Cala Marquesa (the view from above is spectacular), a covethat some years ago could be accessed by land by means of a very steep track that the rain has worn away making it a dangerous, impassable gully. At present it can only be reached by sea, in small boats.
At the bottom, from Tamariu, you can follow the Carrer dels Pescadors, climb up some steps, carry along Carrer del Port de la Malaespina and cross Illa Negra till coming to Carrer de l’Illa Blanca, where you take the coastal path that leads to Aigua Xelida.
If you follow the coast, by sea, you will come to El Rec dels Arbres and Les Coves d'en Gispert, places of great beauty which are particularly recommended. You can get there by organised trips in motorboats or kayaks.
Tamariu is one of three coastal towns belonging to the municipality of Palafrugell, province of Girona, Catalonia, the other two being Calella de Palafrugell and Llafranc. It is part of the Costa Brava in the comarca of Baix Empordà.
It is situated about in a quiet and secluded bay of the Costa Brava close to the nearby inland towns of Palafrugell and Begur. Its name comes from the presence of many tamarisk trees along the promenade.
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| Enjoying Tamariu, Baix Empordà |
Tamariu is typical of the many small coves set amongst rugged pine covered cliffs cascading down to meet the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea which have made the area north of Palamos and south of L'Estartit famous for its outstanding beauty.
Originally a small fishing village, Tamariu has not been overdeveloped and has retained its individuality and charm.
Tamariu is south facing on to one of the most sheltered beaches of the Costa Brava. There are three small hotels, some good seafood restaurants, small cafes and bars. The coarse-sanded Blue Flag beach extending nearly all around the bay is very clean. The crystal clear water is ideal for swimming as the beach, especially on the right hand side, shelves at a fairly gentle angle. It is also popular as a dive site as there are many caves to explore along with the submerged mountain of the Llosa de Cala Nova.
Aigua Xelida is the largest urbanisation in Tamariu filling the gap between Tamariu and Aiguablava. Aigua Xelida has a small sandy cove predominantly for residents of Cala Nostra just 300m away. Building restrictions are not as strict in Aigua Xelida and so many modern villas have been built in the past few years.
The waters around this area are amongst the purest on the coast and there are many other beautiful beaches within easy reach including those at Llafranc, Aigua Blava, Fornells and Calella de Palafrugell. This area consists of a huge geological mass dropping down to the sea in vertical cliffs and because of the height of the mountains and the density of the pine tree cover, the whole area has immense natural beauty.
More information: Visit Palafrugell
Ramon Muntaner (1265–1336) was a Catalan mercenary and writer who wrote the Crònica, a chronicle of his life, including his adventures as a commander in the Catalan Company. He was born at Perelada.
The Catalan Company was an army of light infantry under the leadership of Roger de Flor that was made up of Aragonese and Catalan mercenaries, known as Almogavars; Roger led the Company to Constantinople to help the Greeks against the Turks.
For a lapse of time (1308-1315) he was governor of the island of Djerba, after being conquered by the Crown Of Aragon.
Ramon Muntaner's Crònica is one of the four Catalan Grand Chronicles through which the historian views thirteenth- and fourteenth century military and political matters in the Crown of Aragon and Catalonia. He died at Eivissa (Ibiza) in 1336.
More information: Visat
The Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner, written in Xirivella between 1325 and 1328, is the longest of the four great chronicles and narrates the facts from the birth of Jaume I of Aragon (1207) to the coronation of Alfonso IV of Aragon (1328). His character of mirror of princes and mirror of citizens has been pointed out by all scholars.
He explains things that happened really and that he saw and lived. Muntaner often uses I was there, which underlines its role as witness, and the data it provides helps to know the time of James I.
Ramon Muntaner was born
in Peralada in 1265. He was the son of a remarkable family that hosted
Jaume I the Conqueror. In 1274, Jaume I went to the Second Council of
Lyon and sojourned in the Castle of Peralada with Alfonso X the Wise of
Castile.This fact, which occurred when he was nine years old, was one of
his most precious memories and he mentions this event with emotion in
the Chronicle.
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| Talking about Ramon Muntaner's Chronicle |
In the same way that in the European novelist tradition, for example, Chrétien de Troyes, it is exposed to us, how the vision of a great hero in the eyes of a child is capable of changing the course of his life.
Muntaner says that the vision of Jaume I when he was a child led him to devote himself as a writer explaining everything he had seen.
In 1285, Peralada was destroyed by the Almogàvers during the Crusade against the Crown of Aragon and had to emigrate. When he was twenty, Ramon Muntaner took part in the conquest of Menorca. Later, he participated in the fight against the French during the War of Sicily, in 1300 at the Siege of Messina, next to Roger de Flor and as the administrator of his company. In the summer of 1302, he began under the orders of this leader, the expedition to the East. In 1307, he left the company, and in 1311 he got married.
In 1315, he had to travel between Sicily and Roussillon, as he was in charge of a delicate mission: to transport from Catania to Perpignan an orphan baby, the future Jaume III of Mallorca, in order to deliver him to his grandparents. From that moment on, his memoirs were removed and matured for ten years, until he had a revealing dream that prompted him, in 1325, at the age of sixty, in València, to start writing the Chronicle, which he finished three years later.
More information: Lluís Vives (Catalan Version)
Muntaner had a personal relationship with all the kings of the House of Aragon, the House of Mallorca and the House of Sicily belonging to the lineage of the Casal de Barcelona that were contemporary to him. In doing his work, he mainly resorted to historiographic texts for the reigns of James I and Pere El Gran and, from Alfons el Franc, his almost exclusive source is his own experience.
The work was written to be read aloud. Whenever he addresses his listeners, he usually calls them lords. Muntaner managed to establish direct communication with his listeners. For this, he uses joglaresque procedures such as the question What will I say?, As well as using a live and colloquial language.
The fundamental objective of the work is to glorify the kings of the House of Aragon. The monarchism of our chronicler is closely related to providentialism and nationalism. The blood, a common destiny and the language, the beautiful catalanesc of the world, are the elements that make up the base of the Catalan and Aragonese community. It is impossible to find in the whole of medieval Europe anything that resembles the "national" maturity of the Chronicle.
His life and adherence to the dynasty and the Catalan language, to which he expressed an extraordinary devotion, represent the counterweight to the centripetal forces within the Catalan national community resulting from the organization of conquered lands in new kingdoms (Mallorca, València, Sicília) and, sometimes, the implantation of a new dynastic branch (Mallorca, Sicília).
Muntaner's work had great repercussions and diffusion during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and was used, for example, in various passages of Tirant lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell.
It was edited for the first time in the sixteenth century, coinciding with a time of great revision of historiography; This first edition was commissioned and paid by the jurors of the city of València. New printed editions took place during the 19th century, during the period of romantic exaltation of the European medieval past, even a translation into English made by the Hakluyt Society in 1920-21.
Una cala que ha nom la Tamariu, qui és escala de Palafrugell
A cove named Tamariu, which is stopover of Palafrugell
Ramon Muntaner's Chronicle, 1285
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