These Feet Can Take Us Anywhere

During our time at Lo Güell it mostly rained buckets. But one beautiful Saturday we saw few clouds and decided to enjoy a mostly sunny day by walking up the mountain to the small village of Corsavy, less than an hours walk up the only road around. High in the Eastern Pyrenees, Corsavy is a quaint, tranquil and historic village on top of a ridge offering great views of the Tech valley, fresh mountain air and, as we would soon discover, a hidden treasure of an amazingly beautiful church.

On February 2, 1428, there was a catastrophic earthquake that damaged the entire region of Catalunya and left hundreds dead. The church in the village was badly damaged to the point that its stones were used to rebuild the surrounding houses. The church was rebuilt around 1621, with a date over the door reading 1775. Most of the village was built during the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of the houses in the village have dates carved on the lintel reading from 1730 - 1793 but they are probably older.

Over the years the population of Corsavy has changed dramatically:

in 1370: population 37

in 1732: population 71

in 1846: population 1007

in 1954: population 327

in 2000: population 250

The high population density coincided with the periods when the iron forges of Vallespir were in full use. Vallespir is the name of the region from Ceret through the Tech valley following the Tech upstream to the Spanish border. Iron has been mined in Vallespir for two thousand years and most of the iron came from the mines at Batère, above Corsavy.

As in all mountain villages modern life has drastically reduced employment opportunities and the young increasingly make their way to nearby cities. Already by 1980 there were few miners at Batère and many of the farms were deserted. The construction of Les Chantevents, a home for deprived or abandoned children, brought in some local employment. The mines closed in 1987 and the post office closed in 2005. What’s left is a very quiet and beautiful community of people living simple lives in simple homes decorated massively with loads of aromatic plants and flowers that grow so well in the temperate climate.

On the day that Jon and I walked up the sun was shining and a light breeze scented the air with cherry blossoms and abundant roses. I made a flower garland for my hair and we stopped and enjoyed a coffee at the town’s only cafe.

We had heard a rumor that there was a church in town and that the key could be obtained from the small shop/restaurant across the square. Jon went in, inquired about the key and also used the opportunity to purchased our staples : chocolate and garlic. Jon came out bearing an ancient key, the largest key I have ever seen. It dwarfed his hand and was about the size of his forearm, presumably they don’t have a lot of trouble misplacing it.

After maneuvering the large key through the giant lock we entered and were immediately taken aback by the ornate interior beauty held within the non-descript exterior façade. The small church had only blue stained glass windows and the statues and walls were all different shades of indigo lending a feeling to the entire interior of quiet coolness. We were alone in silence and felt awed to be in that space, it was very special.

We went up to the choir loft as well, which is where I took the above picture from. It was so special to be awash in blue - it was quite mesmerizing.

After returning the key we strolled through the narrow lanes noting the buildings which were still in use since before the United States was born. We nibbled on fresh cherries from the tree under which we waited out a brief shower before stopping by the cemetery on our way home.

The cemetery in Corsavy wasn’t very ancient for as historic a town we were in, so perhaps there was another cemetery outside the village. On another day, however, we walked down the mountain to Arles Sur Tech and spent a pleasant day exploring it. While it wasn’t as picturesque as Corsavy it did have a stellar cemetery and so we wanted to share a few of the pictures from that day. It was overcast and had been raining hard all morning, but there was a break in the afternoon for us to do some exploring. You can see the clouds rolling in for some more rain which was to come soon, and in full force.

And so for now Jon and I are still happily at La Fargassa awaiting a ride that will soon come to take us to Holland. We aim to be leaving around the first week in July so that we can be there to meet up with our friends Gillian and Theresa in Amsterdam and then head to the Southeast of Holland to meet up with Kim and Wim!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 5:05 am and is filed under May 2008, Travel, What's New. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.