Photo by Daniel Ferrer
High above the Congost Valley on the western slopes of Montseny, the fortified basilica of Santa Maria crowns the rocky pinnacle of El Turó del Tagamanent. Only an hour’s drive from Barcelona or a two-hour hike from the village of Aiguafreda, the turó (hill) forms part of a wonderfully deserted and underexplored plateau called El Pla de la Calma (plain of calm), which offers some of the finest (and quietest) hiking trails within 50 kilometres of Barcelona.
The views over the Vallés region, Congost Valley and plain of Osona—with a glimpse of Montserrat’s serrated turrets to the west and Montseny’s hump-backed ridges to the east—are said to have inspired the first flutterings of patriotic sentiment in the chest of a young Jordi Pujol (the ex-President of the Generalitat), when he hiked up to this spot at the end of the civil war. The church, a Gothic re-vamp of the original Romanesque building, sits at the edge of a grassy meadow on a craggy escarpment. Uninhabited for centuries, the complex is currently being rehabilitated by the Diputació de Barcelona.
About Montseny and Pla de la Calma
Renowned for its eco-diversity, the Parc Natural del Montseny combines craggy peaks of up to 1,800 metres with beech, fir and oak forests and sub-Alpine meadows. Pla de la Calma, crossed only by bumpy dirt tracks, is the range on its western fringe. Vehicles up on the Pla de la Calma are particularly rare, so it’s the perfect terrain for biking and hiking enthusiasts in search of a big panorama. That it’s so close to Barcelona only makes its remoteness even more gratifying.
Getting there
If you’re driving and are in no mood for taxing exercise, take the C-17 from Barcelona, exit at Tagamanent and, following signs for Pla de la Calma, take the winding road up to the car park at the foot of the summit. From there it’s just a 15-minute climb on foot.
If you don’t have your own transport and want to earn your views (and lunch at the excellent Masia El Bellver nearby), you can catch the R3 train from Plaça de Catalunya to Sant Martí de Centelles (one hour), where you can hike the GR5 trail up the mountainside via the neigbouring village of Aiguafreda. It’s a moderately easy two-hour climb through pine and oak woods to the top of Turó del Tagamanent, which has an altitude of 1,055 metres.
Lunch
In a meadow at the foot of the Turó escarpment, just a 15-minute walk away, is Masia El Bellver. Run entirely on renewable energy, it offers a buffet for €35 featuring local, organic dishes, such as wild boar cannelloni and garlic-roasted rabbit. You can also enjoy free access to the Museu L’Agustí, an ethnological museum that provides a portrait of traditional life in a masia through the eyes of the Agustí family, who have farmed the land on the Pla de la Calma since the 12th century. Like the restaurant, the ethnological museum can only be visited on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and on public holidays (10.30am-4.30pm). Prior bookings are necessary.