Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Vallfogona de Ripollès

What to see and do in Vallfogona de Ripollès (Ripollès, Girona): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Vallfogona de Ripollès

Towns near Vallfogona de Ripollès

What to see in Sant Joan de les Abadesses 4.6 km · 9 places
What to see in Ogassa 8 km · 2 places
What to see in Vidrà 8 km · 10 places
What to see in Santa Maria de Besora 8.3 km · 1 place
What to see in Riudaura 8.8 km · 2 places
What to see in Sant Pau de Segúries 9.1 km · 1 place
What to see in Ripoll 9.3 km · 13 places
What to see in Campdevànol 12 km · 4 places

Spain › Catalonia › Girona › Ripollès › Vallfogona de Ripollès

What to see and do in Vallfogona de Ripollès

Vallfogona de Ripollès
Village
Vallfogona de Ripollès is a small municipality at the headwaters of the Vallfogona stream, in the Ripollès, on the border with the Garrotxa; its name, documented in the 11th century as valle fecunda, in Latin, means 'fertile valley'. It was officially called Sant Julià de Vallfogona between 1961 and 1982. The village, formerly walled and accessible only through three gates, preserves an architectural ensemble of interest around a central square with arcaded houses, as well as the Pòpul bell tower, the Milany castle and a medieval bridge over the stream. It was the birthplace of the poet Josep Baborés i Homs (1758-1822), a guerrilla fighter and rector of Gualba, murdered by the constitutionalists. Since 2014 it has taken part in a rural electric microgrid experiment. It has 225 inhabitants at 696 metres.
Sant Julià de Vallfogona
Monument
Sant Julià de Vallfogona is a Romanesque church located at the eastern end of the village of Vallfogona de Ripollès, below the road from Ripoll to Olot. The parish is mentioned in 916 and was consecrated in 961 by Bishop Ot of Vic following a reform promoted by Abbess Ranlo of Sant Joan de les Abadesses. Of the 12th-century Romanesque fabric only the west façade survives —with a portal of archivolts decorated with carved pine cones— and part of the nave, since the vault collapsed due to the 15th-century earthquakes. In 1756 a new Baroque church was begun which was never finished, and the complex, topped by a heavy bell tower next to a defence tower, is today in a ruinous state; since 2008 restoration works have been undertaken, through which the town council hopes to open a cultural space there.
Castle of Milany
Monument
The Castell de Milany is what remains, today in ruins, of a fortress situated on a rock at 1,533 metres altitude, at the highest point of the sierra de Milany, between the municipalities of Vallfogona de Ripollès and Vidrà, in the chain of mountains linking the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean. From its position it commands the neighbouring sierras of Santa Magdalena, Puig Estela, Bellmunt and Curull, as well as the Ter valley. The surrounding area, covered with beech and oak woods, allows grazing on the high pastures; nearby there are only the village of Vallfogona, at 928 metres in the bottom of the valley, and the occasional farmhouse such as that of Milany, on the southern slope. The peak appears on the list of the cent cims ('hundred peaks') of the Federació d'Entitats Excursionistes de Catalunya.
Castle of Vallfogona
Monument
Also called la Sala, it stands on a hill above the village; it is a stone building of rectangular plan built from 1335 by Ramon de Milany, with openings from various restoration periods carried out by the counts of Vallfogona. Of its chapel, the Mare de Déu del Pòpulo, only a bell tower with a clock from the late 17th or early 18th century remains standing.
The mushrooms of the Ter and Freser valleys
Food and drink
The beech and pine woods of the Ripollès yield rovellons, ceps, camagrocs and fredolics that sustain a popular enthusiasm for gathering; they are stewed with game meat or simply sautéed with garlic and parsley.