Features

A land of volcanoes and woods out of a fairy tale

A round trip through the picturesque surroundings of La Garrotxa which boasts four well-preserved volcanoes and the magical beech woods of Fageda d'en Jordà

1

The city of vol­ca­noes

Olot, the “city of vol­ca­noes”, is well known for its nat­ural at­trac­tions and for being part of Gar­rotxa's Zona Volcànica. There are four vol­ca­noes in the mu­nic­i­pal area: Montsacopa, Mon­to­livet –both of which can be vis­ited– Gar­ri­nada and Bis­aro­ques. The sur­round­ings of Olot also offer a rich nat­ural en­vi­ron­ment, es­pe­cially the marshy wood­lands of La Moix­ina and the Croscat vol­cano. The botan­i­cal gar­den of Parc Nou is re­mark­able and well worth a visit. It is a also the cen­tre of the Museu dels Vol­cans, where ex­cur­sion­ists will find all the in­for­ma­tion they might want about this unique area.

2

Graderes and beeches

Leav­ing be­hind the cap­i­tal of La Gar­rotxa, vis­i­tors can head up to the Fageda d'en Jordà, a point where the sec­ond part of the route be­gins. The road is easy to fol­low, mak­ing it suit­able for all the fam­ily. The whole area is com­pre­hen­sively sign­posted and very ed­u­ca­tional for chil­dren– it crosses two vol­ca­noes and the area of the Graderes of the Croscat is open for vis­its, with a lot of in­for­ma­tion avail­able on vol­ca­noes.

Take the Olot-Santa Pau road. A few kilo­me­tres be­fore ar­riv­ing at Santa Pau there is a car park on the left side of the road: it's the Can Serra area (Fageda d'en Jordà). This is the first start­ing point. The road fol­lows the itin­er­ary 1, so you'll only have to fol­low the sign­posts (marked in red). Past the area of Santa Mar­garida, take the itin­er­ary 15 (green) in order to get to the Graderes of the Croscat vol­cano and then take itin­er­ary 1 again to re­turn to the start­ing point.

It is a cir­cu­lar route of less than four hours, tak­ing you from the beauty of the Fageda beech woods and the vol­cano of Santa Mar­garida to the spec­tac­u­lar site of the Croscat vol­cano. Croscat is a re­al­tively young vol­cano that erupted for the last time more than 10,000 years ago and that has the high­est cone on the Iber­ian Penin­sula, at some 160 me­tres high.

3

Santa Pau

The route con­tin­ues to the vil­lage of Santa Pau, whose me­dieval sites are a must for vis­i­tors, es­pe­cially the plaça de l'Al­que­ria, the cas­tle and the church of Santa Maria.

Some 81% of its ter­ri­tory is part of the nat­ural park of the Zona Volcànica de la Gar­rotxa. The vil­lage of­fers vis­i­tors ac­tiv­i­ties re­lated to ad­ven­ture sports, hik­ing and horse rid­ing routes. In terms of gas­tron­omy its most pop­u­lar and ap­pre­ci­ated prod­uct is fes­ols de Santa Pau, made with a spe­cial kind of bean that is also the pro­tag­o­nist of an an­nual fair where vis­i­tors can taste dishes cooked in a va­ri­ety of ways.

The route

The route through La Garrotxa's famous volcanic area is an itinerary divided into three parts.The route starts in the local capital of Olot, where visitors can see two volcanoes as well as a museum dedicated to the volcanic phenomena and the various natural natural environments to be found in La Garrotxa. The route continues along the Santa Pau road, up to the fairy-tale style beech wood of the Fageda d'en Jordà. Here there are two more volcanoes before the route ends in the village of Santa Pau, a perfect place to enjoy medieval heritage and its beautiful natural landscape.

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