Barcelona walking tours - Climb to hilltop chapel in natural park, descent to ice cave

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Basics

grade moderate
base Barcelona
location tags Vallès Oriental,
theme tags ecclesiastical, mountain,
walking distance 12 km / 7.46 miles
walking time, excluding breaks 4.15 hr
total return travel time from base to walk 2 hr
total time from "hello" to "goodbye" 7.60 hr
fiestas and markets in places we go through - combine a walk and some partying or shopping!
  • April 22 (all-day Germanic tree cutting and burning ceremony; accommodation recommended and can be arranged)
  • April 23 (mini-pilgrimage)
  • fourth Sunday in April (mini-pilgrimage)
  • September 1 (fiesta mayor)

Note that there are also events in most places on January 6 (Three Kings), Carnival, Easter, April 23 (St George), June 23 (St John), and September 11 (Catalan regional/national day)

The walk

Walk up into the Montseny Park from the deep north-south valley connecting the Vallès and Vic plains. Early 20th century summer villas (1, 2) in village on old Roman (subsequently so-called royal) highway from Barcelona north to the Pyrenees. Casino birthplace of annual world melon-butting championships. Mill disguised as plant. Church and rectory-turned-educational-centre. Impressive decomposing slates, red soils, mixed forest. Hill-top meadows with a long history of human settlement and some classy C18th farms (1, 2, 3). Climb to defunct village on huge rock (1, 2) still with C12th church (revolutionarily deconstructed 1936, rebuilt 1986) but currently without castle. Excellent views over Vic/Osona plain to Pyrenees, Collserola range that masks Barcelona, peaks of Montseny. Bits of the GR5. Drinks at ice basins and storage pits (functional till 1934) and/or station bar.

We can lunch half-way at a good farm restaurant and there’s also the option of a visit to a museum of pre-industrial farm life; both require reservation. At the end there’s an optional extension to well-preserved dolmen.

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rank photo title base walking distance (km) difficulty total travel time (hr) fiestas themes