Following the Path of the Good Men

From the 11th to the 16th cen­tury, the Camí dels Bons Homes, or Path of the Good Men, was an im­por­tant link be­tween the Ariège re­gion in France and the county of Berguedà. The Cathars, flee­ing Cru­sade and In­qui­si­tion, used this route to seek refuge in Cat­alo­nia and gave the itin­er­ary its name, as the Cathars re­ferred to them­selves as ’Good Men’ and ’Good Women’.

Pass­ing through the moun­tains, from friendly house to pre­car­i­ous refuge, they reached Cata­lan lands in the areas of Alt Urgell, Cer­danya and Berguedà. Fol­low­ing this Pyre­nean route will re­veal the same spec­tac­u­lar land­scapes that these men and women of the Mid­dle Ages will have seen in their flight from re­li­gious per­se­cu­tion by the Catholic Church.

The Camí dels Bons Homes is a trans-Pyre­nean walk­ing route of some 200 km that goes from the Quer­alt sanc­tu­ary (Berga) to the Château de Montségur (Ariège). Con­verted into a long-dis­tance path (GR-107), the Camí dels Bons Homes can be done on foot, on horse­back, or – in most sec­tions – by moun­tain bike. By car, you can dis­cover the vil­lages the ’Good Men’ lived in and passed through in the coun­ties of Berguedà, Cer­danya, Alt Urgell and Ariège. The dif­fer­ent stages go through such mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties as Berga, Peguera, Gósol, Bagà, Bel­lver de Cer­danya, Porta, Merenç, Orgeish, Comús, Montse­gur, Roque­fix­ada, Foix, Éller, Meranges, Guils de Cer­danya, Sol­sona, Odèn, Sant Llorenç de Moruny, and Tu­ix­ent.

The Camí dels Bons Homes con­sists of four stages in Cata­lan ter­ri­tory and four to five stages in Oc­c­i­tan ter­ri­tory, which are equiv­a­lent to about 10 days of walk­ing. The ac­cu­mu­lated dif­fer­ence in el­e­va­tion is 5,530 me­tres and the dif­fi­culty is medium-high on foot and very high on a moun­tain bike. Along the en­tire route there are signs, with the white and red mark­ings of the GR107 and ver­ti­cal signs at in­ter­sec­tions to allow you to choose the rec­om­mended path.

Whether in­di­vid­u­ally or as part of an or­gan­ised trip, those who do the itin­er­ary are treated to some en­chant­ing land­scapes and a range of ser­vices, in­clud­ing an in­for­ma­tion of­fice, ac­com­mo­da­tion, moun­tain guides, lug­gage trans­port, travel agen­cies and even taxis.