Village
Berga is the capital of the Berguedà, in the province of Barcelona, at the foot of the Cadí, with 17,473 inhabitants, known worldwide for the Patum, its main festival, declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco in 2005. It may correspond to the ancient Castrum Bergium mentioned by Livy; after the Arab invasion around the year 715 it formed part of the county of Cerdanya and passed in 1117 to the county of Barcelona. It preserves the eighteenth-century sanctuary of Queralt, with an eleventh-century image of the Virgin, and the tenth-century castle of Sant Ferran. Its economy, historically tied to mining, is today based on the textile industry; in the eighteenth century the Farguell family invented there the first Catalan spinning machine, the Bergadana.
Monument
Fortification of Berga, dating from the 11th century, raised above the old town on a hill defended by a stream to the north and a drop to the south; it probably stands on the 'castrum vergium' cited by Roman chroniclers of the 2nd century BC. Documented since 1095 under the counts of Cerdanya and later of Barcelona, the Peguera family held the lordship between 1148 and 1190, when Berenguer de Peguera sold it to Pere de Berga, who fought at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212). In the 13th-14th centuries it was extended and its walls linked to those of the town; it was rebuilt in the 18th century and again in the 19th, during the Carlist Wars. At the end of the 19th century the army handed it over to the Town Council, which sold it to private owners in 1928; used as housing since 1940, the Consell Comarcal del Berguedà acquired it in 1988 and gave it its present name.
Monument
Castell Berguedà, also called the castle of Madrona, stands on the hill of Castellberguedà, next to the sanctuary of Queralt, in Berga; it is a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). The medieval castle, documented as a frontier fortress since 1170, was built over a 7th-century Visigothic castle and was the seat of the Bergadà, a feudal family of the region. It belonged to the viscount Dalmau Bernat, vassal of the counts of Cerdanya and Barcelona at the end of the 11th century, and later to Guillem de Bergadà, father of the troubadour Guilhem de Berguedà, who in 1187 acknowledged holding it in fief from King Alfonso II of Aragon and bequeathed it to his brother Berenguer. Its remains may today correspond to the church of Sant Pere de Madrona and to elements of the sanctuary of Santa Maria de Queralt.
Monument
Fort of circular plan and truncated-cone shape, situated on a watchtower hill of Berga from which the whole of the Baix Berguedà and part of the Alt Berguedà can be seen, declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). It has a semi-underground ground floor and an upper floor covered by a stone vault, flanked by arrow slits and machicolations preserved in poor condition, along with remains of the wall that linked it to the castle of Sant Ferran. It was part of a fortification project for Berga signed in 1797 by the engineer Antonio López Sopeña, which was never fully carried out, and was finally built in 1836, during the First Carlist War. The mountain range where it stands was the scene of harsh fighting on 19 July 1713, in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Nature
Rasos de Peguera is a mountain plateau situated in an anticlinal fold of the pre-Pyrenean ranges, about nine kilometres north-east of Berga, with views over the whole Berguedà comarca; on the peak known as Cabrero or Santo Cristo stands a cross that gives the place its name. It was one of the first spots in Catalonia where people skied, as early as 1908, and in 1975 the alpine ski resort inaugurated there took its name, the only one in the province of Barcelona, which came to have five chairlifts, a ski school and both Nordic and alpine ski runs, although it is now out of service. Since 2009 the Generalitat de Catalunya has promoted projects to modernise the area, including a flora and fauna park and a new cross-country skiing area.
Activity
La Patum de Berga is the Corpus Christi festival in this town in the Berguedà, with els Salts dels gegants, plens i maces, declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005 and inscribed in 2008 on its Representative List, and thus a Treasure of Spain's Intangible Cultural Heritage alongside the Misteri d'Elx or the Fallas. Documented since 1525 and founded in the late 14th century, it consists of performances of mystical figures dancing to the beat of drums amid fire and pyrotechnics: on the Wednesday before Corpus, the tabal drum and the giants announce its beginning, and then a mimed drama is staged with the battles between Christians and Moors and that of Saint Michael against Lucifer. The festivities run until Sunday, with a children's Patum on the Friday.
Activity
Traditional autumn fair in Berga, with a market of local produce and livestock.
Curiosity
Traditional dish from the Berguedà made with mountain black potato mixed with botifarra negra, typically accompanied by bacon. It was originally prepared by farmhouse families to make use of the pig's blood and offal; today there are many variants, such as mashing the potatoes with a fork and pan-frying them mixed with cabbage and botifarra negra. It is a very popular dish in Berga and in the mountain areas of the Berguedà, and is eaten mainly in winter for its hearty, fatty character. It is usually served with red wine, farmhouse bread, escarole salad and candied cabbage.
Historical milestone
Livy mentions the Bergistani, an Iberian tribe of the upper Llobregat, subdued by Hannibal in 218 BCE and again by Cato in 195. From their name derive that of the Berguedà comarca and that of its capital, Berga.
Historical milestone
In the eleventh century the division of the comital inheritance of Cerdanya gave rise to a county of Berga of its own, short-lived, which ended up reintegrated into the house of Cerdanya and later into that of Barcelona. It fixed, however, the identity of the comarca.
Historical milestone
During the First Carlist War the villa was the seat of the Junta and of the Carlist command in the Principality, with the Count of España at its head. Espartero's troops occupied it in 1840 and put an end to the redoubt.
Food and drink
Dark-grained pea grown almost exclusively in this comarca, recovered after coming close to being lost. It is cooked stewed with bacon and butifarra or as a garnish, and has a thicker skin and a more earthy flavour than the common one.
Food and drink
Herbal liqueur made with plants gathered in the sierra of Queralt, above Berga, macerated and distilled according to a local formula. It is taken as a digestif and shares the table with the barreja and the ratafia of the comarca.