Prades, Red Hills by a Blue Sea
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LANDSCAPES SIURANA IPRIORAT] PRADES, RED HILLS BY A BLUE SEA THEHILLS OF PRADESHAVE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES MORE TYPICAL OF THE PYRENEANFOOTHILLS THAN OF THE COASTAL RANGE, AND THIS GIVES THE IMPRESSION THAT THE SEA IS HUNDREDS OF KILOMETRES AWAY WHEN IN FACT THE MEDITERRANEANIS BARELY A STONE'S THROW AWAY. LANDSCAPES atalonia is, undoubtedly, a small fleet of ships set off for Mallorca to expel Borges and Alforja the road isn't recom- country. One of its great attrac- the Arabs and conquer the Balearics for mended for high speed travel- we can Ltions, though, is the combination the Crown of Catalonia and Aragon. step out into Prades's porticoed church of its small size and its great geographi- From Salou, halfway between Tarragona square. cal variety. Plains, rivers, mountains, and Reus, we can take the main road to This is the highest point of the region valleys and coastline live side by side in the latter town. Then we follow the road known as Camp de Tarragona, once a suggestive and often striking harmony. to Falset, and after a while we turn off to- large plain and mountains covered in The hills of Prades are a clear example of wards Les Borges del Camp and Alforja. woodland. For some centuries now this this: with physical properties more typi- Suddenly, the road, which has taken a woodland has been reduced to this cal of the Pyrenean foothills than of the straight line along the plain, starts to mountain backdrop circling the plain: coastal range, one might be tempted to climb, winding and twisting until before Prades, Llaberia, Alforja, El Montsant, believe that the sea is hundreds of kilo- too long we find ourselves surrounded by La Llena, La Mussara, Colldejou ... A metres away when in fact the Mediterra- mountains, the Montsant massif and the varied wooded landscape which as any- nean is barely a stone's throw away. hills of Prades. We go through Cornude- one will te11 you is at its best in the auturnn, Take Salou, for example, one of the in- lla de Montsant and turn off to Prades the mushroom season. Catalonia is a great ternational tourist resorts that have when we get to the village of Albarca. country for mushrooms and these woods grown up along the Catalan coast, where Les then three quarters of an hour after are one of the richest areas there are for there is nothing to remind us of that leaving Salou -travelling slowly be- rovellons (lactarius) and other types. medieval beach from which James 1's cause, amongst other reasons, after Les The forests of Prades are of oak and pine, LANDSCAPES CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY OF SCALA- DEI (PRIORATI with bearbeny here and there. The town, If you're not one of these tourists from habited and the site of a well-known at an altitude of 1,000 metres, has little Salou -or any other place- who make a mountain refuge), Mont-ral, Poboleda, more than 500 inhabitants who live in quick morning or aftemoon visit, at most la Morera de Montsant, Scala Dei, etc. houses built in the same red stone that a day trip, and you can spend the night We can get to these villages along any characterizes the area, making a curious there, you'll find a feeling of absolute one of the three narrow roads leaving contrast with its surroundings and leaving peace. You can spend a long time sitting Prades. Some are especially worth re- a striking impression on the first-time at a table outside one of the bars in the comrnending. First of all, Siurana, a tiny visitor. The houses are of two or three sto- square -perhaps wrapped-up in a light group of houses set right on the edge of reys, making up a walled network of jersey-, watching the time go by. You the great drop of the Prades ravine. Not narrow streets, with the large, open church may even understand one of the many easy to get to (from Prades itself or from square, also of red stone, surrounded by legends that have grown up around these Cornudella) and surrounded on three arches and with the unique "font de stones. Prades is a land of little chapels, sides by high cliffs, Siurana rises majesti- maig", a constant fountain of pure, fresh steeped in history, of honey and medi- cally over the dam in the river that bears water, except for one day a year, when it cinal herbs, of bandits and of battles, a its name. With its frying-pan shape runs with cava as the centrepiece of a hundred years ago, between absolutists as seen from above, Siurana was -and celebration that shatters the town's eterna1 and liberals, a land of legends, of fairy is- so impregnable that the Arabs held peace. In holiday periods and at week- tales that were told around the fire. out there for a long time. In fact, the ends, its inhabitants are joined by a small Prades is also the centre for al1 the little mountains of Prades -and their fortress, colony of outsiders who have houes in the towns and villages, rich in tradition, that Siurana- were reconquered very late by town or in the few developments that have dot the daunting, almost Pyrenean land- the Christians. Before that they had time grown up around it, built with sufficient scape, at times overgrown with wood- to reach Tortosa and the length of the care and good fortune to have avoided land, at others scorched dry. These line of the River Ebro as far as Lleida. The damaging the landscape and the sur- towns and villages contain such an im- Christians' final assaults gave rise to one roundings. There's a camping site nearby, mense wealth, in spite of their small of the region's most popular legends, the opened just a few months ago, in good size, that the geographer Josep Iglésies story of Abd-al-azia, the Moorish queen conditions and with a swimming-pool didn't hesitate to cal1 them "the cities of of Siurana. Secondly, Scala Dei. If you with guaranteed cold water. In Prades, at the world" and devote a delightful book go back from Prades to Cornudella and, night, it's cool even in the hottest August. to them: Capafonts, Farena, la Febró, on leaving Comudella, turn right, away In winter, needless to say, snow is assured. Siurana, Arbolí, la Mussara (now unin- from the road to Reus, you enter the LANDSCAPES Priorat, a district well known for the stones, still inhabited by one of the best- Hospitalet, etc.-, but which seems to be strength and quality of its wines, espe- known and most respected religious years and kilometres away from it all. cially the reds. A tough, difficult district, communities in Catalonia. The monks of And in the middle of this world, a very hot in summer and cold in winter, Poblet are a paradigm of agricultura1 legend among the legends of this nostal- full of vineyards and co-operative work -they also have vineyards, of gic countryside, the red town of Prades, cellars, many of them built by important course- and of intellectual work, of inner proud and warm. Warm in spite of the Catalan Modemist architects who were withdrawal and of openness to society. climate, the cool of its waters, the stark colleagues or pupils of Gaudí. On Poblet, as well as its magnificent archi- contrast of its vegetation and its build- entering the Priorat, at the foot of the tecture standing out against the moun- ings. Prades, the red town, home of an- Montsant massif -dotted with caves and tains of Prades behind it, offers a view of cient counts, inspiration of poets and chapels- you soon come to Scala Dei. the Conca de Barbarh, another region story-tellers. If you want a view of its With its strongly medieval-sounding rich in tradition, and at the same time, en- majestic splendour, 1 can offer you some name, Scala Dei offers an agreeable closed in this striking and changing geo- advice, even though it isn't very easy to combination. Rather than a village, graphy is the home of the mausoleum of follow. If you can go there by helicopter Scala Dei is the perfect symbiosis of the the medieval Catalan Count-Kings. One or small plane, there's nothing like district: cellars open to the visitor of the most frequently visited and repro- flying over its forests before approa- where you can buy one of the best wines duced tombs is in fact that of James 1, the ching Siurana -and perhaps seeing the of the area, and the ruins of the Carthusian king who conquered the whole of Valen- hook-nosed, crab-bearded outline in sto- monastery. After a short walk, the prioral cia and who one fine day set sail from the ne of the face of a medieval Jew, per- monastery of Scala Dei, which gives its shores of Salou. ched, according to legend, at the corner name to the region and was once the site As Josep Iglésies said, these are "the of one of the cliff edges- and then effor- of wealth and splendour, will greet you cities of the world", the heart of a rural, tlessly skipping over the hills towards ruined but still imposing. mountain world that survives with diffi- Reus. In no time at all, instead of flying If you leave Prades in the opposite direc- culty -the crisis in the farming world over the treetops, you will be flying far, tion, towards Vilanova de Prades and gets worse and the young people leave far above the plain of El Camp.