Village
Prats de Lluçanès is the capital of the Lluçanès comarca, in Barcelona, which it joined in 2023 after belonging to Osona, and has 2,761 inhabitants; the village has been documented since the year 905. During the War of the Spanish Succession it was sacked and burned twice by Bourbon troops in 1714, the second time affecting some 140 houses, an event still commemorated every 5 February with a ringing of bells for Santa Àgata. It preserves the Baroque church of San Vicente, the 16th-century sanctuary of the Bona Sort, the small Romanesque church of Sant Andreu de Llanars, and the castle of Quer, declared a bien de interés cultural in 1988 (Spain's highest level of heritage protection). According to local tradition, the Catalan carol Fum, fum, fum originated in Prats, from where it spread throughout Catalonia.
Monument
Sant Andreu de Llanars is a small Romanesque church located to the west of the municipal district of Prats de Lluçanès, in the old district of the castle of Oristà, documented since 908. The first references to the place of Llanars date from 997, when Abbot Sunifred donated to the monastery of Sant Benet de Bages an alod located there, and the church is mentioned in 1034. It soon lost its parish status and came under the dependence of Santa Eulàlia de Pardines until 1787, later becoming part of Prats de Lluçanès. It is a single-nave building with a semicircular apse, covered by a pointed barrel vault, whose walls date from the 11th century and were thickened in the 12th; it preserves a tower belfry with round-arched openings.
Nature
The Altiplà del Lluçanès is a plateau of 368 km² located between the Plana de Vic and the Berguedà, bordering the Pre-Pyrenees, which gives its name to the Lluçanès region and slopes from 900-1,000 metres altitude in the north-east down to 450-550 in the south-west. Its climate is Mediterranean with a continental tendency, tempered by altitude, with an average temperature of about 12 degrees. It is watered by streams such as the Merlès, Lluçanès and Gavarresa, tributaries of the Ter and the Llobregat. The plateau comprises eight municipalities - Alpens, Lluçà, Olost, Oristà, Perafita, Prats de Lluçanès, Sant Martí d'Albars and Sobremunt - with a density of barely 21 inhabitants per square kilometre and a total population of 5,586 inhabitants in 2022.
Activity
The Festa Major d'Hivern of Prats de Lluçanès is celebrated from January 17 to 22 in honor of Sant Vicenç, patron of the town; the main day, January 22, includes the procession of the Gegants de Prats with the Cobla Maravella, a solemn mass, the singing of the Goigs de Sant Vicenç, and the Trencadansa.
Activity
Summer Festa Major of Prats de Lluçanès, in the Lluçanès (Barcelona), dedicated to Sant Joan and to Sant Eloi, patron of the traginers or muleteers, from whom they took the name Elois. It dates back to the late 19th century, when the traginers gathered on 25 June with their animals decked out with blankets and bells to dance the Contrapàs and run with them to the hermitage of Sant Sebastià. The festival declined with the disappearance of the trade, but in 1979 the Grup Germanor revived the dance. Today it begins on the 24th at dusk with the arrival of the flame of Canigó and a torchlight procession with animals and carriages; on the 25th the route is repeated and the Elois are run along the road to Sant Sebastià.
Activity
Traditional fair devoted to the world of muleteers and horses, in Prats de Lluçanès (Barcelona), linked to the Festes de Sant Joan i els Elois, held on 24 and 25 June. The traginers, or Elois, would begin gathering on 25 June in the village with their pack animals - donkeys, mules and horses - in a tradition linked to Sant Eloi as patron of carriers and blacksmiths. The celebration includes processions with animals and carriages, the traditional Contrapàs dance and horse races.
Curiosity
Traditional dish of the Lluçanès similar to trinxat, made with potato and cabbage mixed with ham, botifarra negra and bacon.
Activity
The Fira de Sant Jaume of Prats de Lluçanès is a centuries-old fair held on the Sunday closest to 25 July, the feast of Sant Jaume; it began as one of the comarca's livestock fairs linked to transhumance and today combines craft stalls, concerts and tastings of local produce.
Curiosity
A centuries-old tradition of artisan sausage-making that gives the Lluçanès its culinary identity.
Monument
Seat of the town hall of Prats de Lluçanès, capital of the Lluçanès, housed in the building known as Can Bach, built in the early 1920s by the Bach family to a design by the architect Duran i Reynals. The building, with a ground floor, upper floor and attic, is covered by a four-sided Arab-tile roof and has masonry walls with dressed-stone corner quoins; on the main façade, facing north, a porch with four pillars of hammered stone stands out. Years after it was built, the town council acquired the building to house the town hall there.
Activity
There is no record of a 'Fira de Sant Lluc' in Prats de Lluçanès; the documented fair of the village is the Fira de Santa Llúcia, on the Sunday nearest 13 December, dedicated to livestock and farm machinery since the 18th century.
Activity
The Fira de Santa Llúcia de Prats de Lluçanès is held on the Sunday nearest 13 December; with a tradition documented since the 18th century, it brings together a livestock show, farm machinery and craft stalls.
Curiosity
Former royal road that crossed the Lluçanès, linking the plain of Vic with Berga.
Activity
The festival of Santa Àgata in Prats de Lluçanès, on 5 February, commemorates the two Bourbon attacks suffered by the town in 1714, the first of them on that very day, at the hands of the troops of the duke of Popoli.
Nature
Prats de Lluçanès, capital of the official comarca of the Lluçanès since 2023, sits on a high plain in the municipal district of Lluçà, between the depressions of the rivers Lluçanès and Merlès. The landscape of the comarca, situated between the middle courses of the Llobregat and the Ter, is shaped above all by farming and livestock activity.
Monument
Historic bridge in the municipal district of Prats de Lluçanès.
Historical milestone
On 3 May 2023 the Parliament of Catalonia approved the creation of the Lluçanès as comarca number 43 of Catalonia, with its capital in Prats de Lluçanès. It culminated a process begun with the popular consultation of 2015, in which support exceeded 70% of the votes.
Historical milestone
Prats de Lluçanès suffered two Bourbon attacks in 1714: on 5 February, with the troops of the Duke of Popoli, and on 1 July, which destroyed close to three quarters of the urban centre. The festival of Santa Àgata recalls those events.
Food and drink
Mycological event held in October in Prats de Lluçanès, when the woods of the plateau fill with mushroom gatherers. It combines guided outings, an exhibition of species and restaurant menus with rovellons, llenegues and ceps.
Food and drink
Show of tastings made with local produce that is integrated into the Fira de Sant Jaume of Prats de Lluçanès, at the end of July. It brings together producers and restaurateurs of the comarca around cured meats, cheeses, pulses and breads.