ENJOY BEGUES! SANT CRISTÒFOL, LA RECTORIA & EL MUR

Today, The Grandma has returned to Begues to spend a wonderful day with her friend Montse. They have visited some of the most beautiful places in a village that has thousands of years of history to tell and hundreds of places, buildings and archaeological remains to display.

If you want to enjoy history, nature and some extraordinarily fantastic people, visit Begues, and you will discover how time stops and catches you and nature liberates you at the same time. It is always an unforgettable experience and a great pleasure to go to Begues.

More information: Ajuntament de Begues

First, Montse and The Grandma have visited the primitive church of Sant Cristòfol whose first reference to is a notarial document from the year 981, of which no remains are known. The characteristics of the facing of some walls made of large ashlars of red sandstone, found in archaeological excavations carried out in the sacristy, seem to correspond to the second Romanesque or transitional one (12th-13th centuries). They must not correspond, then, to the primitive temple of the ninth or tenth centuries, but to a later one, Romanesque, which has not been preserved either.

The fact that the church did not appear as a parish until the middle of the 13th century may indicate that it was formerly a church built by the community of smallholders in the area, but without the character of a parish, as the tax linked to the functions paid by all the inhabitants in the parish of Sant Miquel d'Eramprunyà and, in any case, to the lords of the castle as lords of the church.

The first mention of the existence of this parish with a rural notary is from 1264. A document from 1279 refers to the rector of Sant Cristòfol de Begues and in 1413 we have a first explicit mention of the rectory, because in the pastoral visit the repair of the rectory is demanded. It must be assumed, then, that the Romanesque temple became insufficient to cater for the growing number of attendees in the parish due, above all, to sixteenth-century French immigration.

Thus, between 1575 and 1579 this new church was built on what had been the parish cemetery. It is a nave church, with a polygonal apse and covered with very homogeneous Renaissance Gothic vaults. The most outstanding element is the Renaissance portal, with a triangular pediment supported by 2 columns, above which is the image of Saint Christopher and on the sides those of Saint George and Saint Michael the Archangel. The sundial on the cover dates from 1878, and corresponds to a 19th century renovation, at which time the red and yellow glazed flake roof that covers the bell tower must also be placed.

Download Història de l'Església Vella de Sant Cristòfol de Begues (Catalan)

Later, Montse and The Grandma have visited La Rectoria. It is adjacent to the apse of the church and with the south façade facing south. It is a building with the appearance of a farmhouse, presided over by a porch that occupies the entire main façade. Until 1930, the old rectory was still the rector's house, and probably only on the ground floor did farmers live. It ceased to be used as such when the new church and rectory in the centre of the village was built in 1931, and later the old one was sold to Mr. Queralt, a person who actively participated in the arrangement of the road from Gavà to Begues in the 1940s.

La Rectoria is a building attached to the old church of Sant Cristòfol. It has its origins in the thirteenth century, having small several later reforms. The characteristic porticoes galleries on the façade must date from the 18th century.

For centuries the church and rectory were isolated in depopulation, until in 1828 the rector was allowed to parcel out the bad lands of the environment for economic and security reasons, thus beginning the suburb of La Rectoria. 

The suburb of La Rectoria was set up from 1830 on the lands of the diocese in order to give protection and economic resources (censuses) to the rector who, until then, lived in the open, in a very vulnerable situation to the insecurity of the age. The houses on Carrer de Sant Cristòfol, Cal Traginer and Cal Fusteret were built during the 19th century, while Cal Gaietano could well be from the 18th century.

To the south of the church and next to the road to Gavà is Cal Paulo, a building with a square floor plan, three floors and a roof on four sides, following the classicist models starting to build in 1840 and completed in 1896. It was owned by the canon, and it seems that initially it was supposed to be a convent, but in fact throughout the twentieth century it was a farmhouse with its neighbourhood and various terraced sheds.

More information: Municipis Catalans (Catalan)

Finally, Montse and The Grandma have visited El Mur, a wonderful place located in a privileged environment. This viewpoint is an ideal place to enjoy the silence and contemplate a totally panoramic landscape of the south of the Baix Llobregat. It is a space dedicated to reflection, tranquillity and meditation. For this reason, it has been christened the Space of Silence.

The viewpoint includes a park with trails designed to stimulate the senses of sight, smell and hearing, with four sensory walks along the paths of the viewpoint. Colours, smells, contemplation and meditation are the four axes that guide these routes.

It has public benches, services and a material store to store the equipment needed to organize activities around meditation and contemplation.

One of the main attractions of the viewpoint is the paths that run just below the vaults of the entrance. You can walk along the paths until you reach the so-called viewpoint of the cave, from where you can see an extensive panorama of the Llobregat Delta.

More information: Komoot

 We are not makers of history.
We are made by history.

Martin Luther King, Jr.