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Cor de Maria School Olot, Catalonia, Spain

Olot

OLOT

Town Hall

Major Square

Country SpainCommunity Catalonia

Province GironaCounty Garrotxa

Area 29.13 km2 (11.2 sq mi)Elevation 443 m (1,453 ft)Population 33 813 inhab. (2012)Density 1,150.8/km2 (2,980.7/sq mi)

Olot is the capital city of La Garrotxa county, in the province of Girona.

La Garrotxa is well known for its volcanoes and its landscape.

GARROTXA

OLOT

THE OLD CITY AND ITS ENVIRONMENT

Olot is situated on a plain of the high basin of Fluvià river, which crosses the city from one side to the other.

The city is situated in an area with many inactive volcanoes, lying in the protected area of the Natural Park the Garrotxa.

The urban area includes three volcanic craters: Montolivet, Montsacopa and Garrinada.

The Natural Park covers an area of 119 Km² and it includes the famous beech forest of La Fageda d'en Jordà.

 

The Passeig d’en Blay’s structure was built at the end of XV century, when the city expanded.

Interesting buildings: Sola Morales house (antique aristocratic house), the Main Theatre (with more than a hundred years) and the bullring (one of the oldest in Spain).

Monuments: Reading by Miquel Blay, Origin by Emilia Xargay La Sardana by Xavier Carbonell. 

1. PASSEIG D’EN BLAY

Stone monument by sculptor Miquel Blay.

Started in 1918 and inaugurated in 1953.

It represents education.

2. READING MONUMENT

3. SAINT ESTEVE’S CHURCH(1750-1763)

neoclassical style with baroque front and stairs.

Baroque altarpiece inside (17th C.), by Pau Costa.

Huge canvas by El Greco, Christ with the Cross, (1605).

The profile of the church and its bell are emblematic elements of Olot.

   St. Rafel Street is one of the

most important streets in the city centre, where most commercial activity is developed. We can find clothes shops, jewelleries, a typical baker’s... At one end the street leads to Clarà Sq. and at the other end to St. Esteve's church.

4. SANT RAFEL STREET

Devoted to sculptor Josep Clarà Ayats, who made a small size sculpture called Maternity. Bigger copies were made until the sculpture became a representative image of Olot. It Is one of the most important parks in Olot whose style is French baroque.  

5. CLARÀ SQUARE

Monastery of the Carmelite order, (1569-1572), that constitutes the most important and oldest work of monumental architecture in Olot. In the church there is a big nave from a gothic and late Renaissance style. It is formed by eight side chapels with shields. Carmelite cloisters were built at the end of 16th C. and due to the earthquakes that devastated the city in 1427 and 1428 is in fact one of the city’s oldest buildings. The cloisters are currently dedicated to the Fine Arts School.

6. CARME CHURCH AND CLOISTERS

7. “PARC NOU” PARK  

“Parc Nou” is a former stately home that in 1932, became a municipal property and was opened to the public in 1943. Currently, New Park, has about four hectares, and is home of the Museum of Volcanoes, that provides an explanation of the volcanic phenomena and natural systems to be found in La Garrotxa.

8. MUSEUM OF SAINTS 

Devoted to the manufacture of religious imagery, where visitors can witness in situ the details of this production.

This activity has more than a hundred years of history.

The museum is located in a neo-gothic building that was home to Art Cristià, the first ever saint’s workshop opened in Olot (1880).

9. MOIXINAWonderful and peaceful spot, declared Artistic Natural Park in 1945.The Moixina’s fountain is Romanesque and it’s made of volcanic stones with a shield and several water streams, surrounded by a big group of oaks. A delightful landscape of swamps and wet vegetation which has inspired thousands of artists.

In the Triai meadows, we find the Triai cross, made in memory of the murder of eleven men on 31st October 1936, the most horrible event of the Civil War in Olot.

10. TRIAI CROSS

 

It’s called the Triai because in the past, during the month of May, young people from all the region came to Olot to look for a boyfriend-girlfriend, so the name of Triai, means “promise”. A party started and a lot of young people started a relation which was the cause of a lot of marriages.

11. FAGEDA D’EN JORDÀ

Fageda d’en Jordá, of mysterious appearance, is an exceptional beechwood because it grows at an elevation of just 500m and is located above the lava flow of the Croscat Volcano. The relief of the land is characteristically waving, with short elevations (hillocks). Nowadays it is one of the twenty-five natural reserves of the Natural Park of the Volcanic Area of La Garrotxa. Building and hunting is banned. La Fageda is a kind of caducifolic forest, and it presents a different look according to the season.

Situated inside the beechwood called Fageda d’en Jordà.

On it we can read the poem “La Fageda d’en Jordá”, by Joan Maragall (Barcelona 1860-1911). He was a journalist and poems writer. His death in 1911 set the end of a literature movement called modernism.

Joan Maragall visited the “Fageda d’en Jordá” and got inspired to write a poem about this beechwood, which transmits peace and calm feelings.

12. MONOLITH (Maragall’s poem).

13. SANTA MARGARIDA VOLCANO

It’s a mixed volcano, of strombolian and freatomagmatic kind.

Its eruption opened a wide circular crater, with 350 m of diameter, 70 m deep and 80 m high.

Inside the crater we can see the hermitage called with the same name. The rest of the volcano is fully covered by vegetation and forests.

 

14. CROSCAT VOLCANOThe youngest volcano in this area. It had two eruptions, the first and more important was 17000 years ago, and the second one was 11500 years ago. It is an strombolian volcano. This kind of volcanoes characterized for a violent explosion of magma fragments. The fragments of the Croscat covered an area of 10 km² and they joined making a cone 160m high. The crater with a horseshoe shape is 600m long and 350m wide.

Located in the inner city Montsacopa is only accessible on foot, but it is worth climbing for the 360º view. In the crater, the church of Sant Francesc was built in the 19th C. and the watch towers date from the era of the Carline Wars, also in the 19th C.

15. MONTSACOPA VOLCANO

Avenue situated on the left bank of the river Fluvià, with a row of centenary plane trees on both sides.

At one end there is Saint Roc bridge, Saint Roc fountain, and the cycle lane. Up the stairs there is Saint Roc chapel, built in 1594.

16. PASSEIG DE SANT ROC

Devoted to the city patron, Tura Virgin. The legend says that she was found by an ox.

First building from the early Romanesque, but the carving of Tura Virgin is the only thing preserved.

The 15th C. earthquakes destroyed it and during the 16th and 17th centuries it was restored.

In 1936 the church was burnt, the bell tower destroyed and the Romanesque figures of the Virgin (11th-12th C.), Sant Joaquim and the Ecce Homo by Amadeu were the only elements saved.

17. TURA’S CHURCH

TYPICAL FOOD & DRINK

Tortell

Ratafia

Crema

Yogurts

Embotit (cold meat from pork)

Meat industry

Olot’s "giants”, a symbol of the city.

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