Top 20 Natural Monuments around les Gavarres

The dolmen has the shape of a rectangular burial chamber, composed of large vertical stone slabs (orthostats) that support a horizontal upper slab (cover). It is surrounded by a tumulus, an accumulation of earth and stones that originally covered the entire structure, giving it the appearance of a small hill. It is approximately 7.5 metres long, with an inner chamber of 2 metres. Its entrance faces southeast, probably for astronomical or ritual reasons. It was used as a collective tomb, where the ancient inhabitants deposited the remains of the deceased along with offerings, tools, pottery and other funerary objects.

It was first documented in the 19th century, when the first archaeological investigations in the area began. The objects found in the dolmen, such as pottery and flint tools, have helped to understand the funerary and social customs of its builders. Legends related to witches and magic rituals circulate around the dolmen, common in the popular stories of the area. Like many dolmens, its orientation could be related to the position of the sun during the solstices, which reinforces its symbolic and spiritual importance.

It is one of the best preserved megalithic monuments in the region. This dolmen, built during the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic period (around 2,700-2,200 BC), is an impressive testimony to the funerary and spiritual practices of the prehistoric communities that inhabited this area.

There are also dolmens in Spain!

Impressive dolmen that is located a few meters from the center of Romanyà de la Selva and that makes us imagine the first hominids living in this maritime area of the Gavarres.

The castle of Palagret or Mabarrera is in the middle of the Palagret valley, at the top of a small hill, 178 m high, in the northernmost foothills of the Gavarres massif to the south-east of the Celrà center and to the south- west of Juià. Strategically located to control the Roman-era road that allowed access to Girona from the Baix Empordà through the Gavarres. Important medieval vestiges of the licorella walls of a rectangular construction as well as pre-Romanesque elements are preserved from the castle. The preserved remains could be dated to the 10th and 11th centuries,[1] and its last occupants left the premises between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th.[2] It is a building in Celrà (Gironès) declared a cultural asset of national interest.

It is a tree that is located one kilometer from the Sanctuary of Los Angeles. The surolí is a mixture of cork oak and holm oak and there are some specimens in Las Gavarras. This one in particular was the testimony of a love story: Legend has it that once upon a time there was a couple in love who loved each other very much. They had considered getting married but the boy had to do the service and was assigned far away from his mistress. The girl, sad, prayed to the Mother of God that her beloved would return soon and every time she passed in front of the surolí she threw stones. At the third time, the stone stuck. At the age of three, the boy returned and they were able to get married. From there the tradition was born that all single boys and girls went to the surolí to throw stones at it. They had to throw so many stones for it to stay hooked, so many years would pass until they found a husband or wife.

Montigalar (467m) or Montigalar Gros (to differentiate it from Montigalar Petit (377m) which is 720m to the SW) is a mountain in the Gavarres that is included in the list of 100 peaks of the F.E.E.C. https://www.feec.cat/activitats/100-cims/cim/montigalar/ At its rocky summit we find a geodesic vertex and some andromines that certain hikers like to decorate the mountain tops. If the day is clear we will be able to enjoy some magnificent panoramas, so towards the NE we could distinguish Sant Salvador Saverdera, El Perní, the Bay of Roses, El Puig Rodó, Montplà (Montgrí), among others...