In 2019, the council of La Cellera de Ter acquired a large area of the Canet mountain\u2014a forest estate thick with Mediterranean holm oak woods located in the north of the municipality, next to the river Ter\u2014with the aim of preserving and raising awareness of its natural and heritage values.<\/p>\n
Among the most important elements to be found is the cave of El Pasteral, classified as a cultural asset of local interest (or BCIL \u2013 b\u00e9 cultural d\u2019inter\u00e8s local).<\/p>\n
The cave of El Pasteral occupies a cavity with a known route of some 350 metres, and is considered to be the most important cave in the region and the largest in the Guilleries massif.<\/p>\n
GEOLOGY<\/p>\n
The cave of El Pasteral is the result of a long geological process that began approximately 450 million years ago, in the Ordovician period. At that time, the sea deposited large quantities of calcium carbonate in the area, which slowly turned into limestone rock. This rock was warped and fractured by the actions of pressure and temperature over the course of many years. Subsequently, water eroded the limestone rock, forming cavities and rounded shapes. About 300 million years ago, a group of magmatic rocks, called granodiorites, penetrated through the cracks in the limestone rock and transformed it into marble, as a result of the clash of temperatures and pressures. Today, both types of rock can be clearly seen in the cave (the greyish coloured marbles and the reddish coloured granodiorites), as well as an unknown type of sediment layer. The cave features numerous intricate tunnels oriented according to the fractures of the Canet mountain, one running in a north-south direction and the other in an east-west direction. Structurally, the cave has three main (artificial) entrances at the base and two (natural) entrances at the top, with galleries at a minimum of five different heights and a total drop of about 15 metres.<\/p>\n
The lower section of the cave\u2014the only area that can be visited at present\u2014has been partially affected by a mining operation that, during the 1920s\u20131970s, dug out large rooms and corridors, while the upper part comprises narrow, labyrinthine and spectacular galleries that are only accessed with difficulty.<\/p>\n
ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS<\/p>\n
From an archaeological perspective, the caves contains the remains of various burials carried out by the first local populations of sedentary farmers and stockbreeders, from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (between 4500 BC and 2500 BC). Numerous examples of human remains have been found here, as well as many pieces of pottery, dozens of necklaces, flint blades, and so on. Burials from this period are very rare in the whole of the western Mediterranean, which is why the El Pasteral site is of great importance for the interpretation of the prehistory of Catalonia. Moreover, the significant difference between the dates of the various remains provides a clue to the extraordinarily long tradition of the use of the cave of El Pasteral as a burial site.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, however, marble quarrying works last century destroyed at least one room where remains had already been found almost 100 years ago, and where many more would very likely have been buried.<\/p>\n
FAUNA<\/p>\n
The irregularity of the cave also supports numerous microclimates that offer bats and other cave-dwelling animals a wide range of conditions, suitable for the different periods of their life cycles. Of the 29 species of bats currently known in Catalonia, 14 can be found in the cave of El Pasteral and immediate surroundings, making the area a sanctuary of the first order that must be protected and conserved. Moreover, two of these species feature on the Spanish list of endangered species (RD 139\/2011), three are in a precarious state (the greater horseshoe bat, the Mediterranean horseshoe bat, and the lesser horseshoe bat), and one is currently at risk of extinction (the big-footed bat, which lives around the banks of the Ter).<\/p>\n
As for subterranean fauna, that is, animals adapted to cave conditions, 22 different species have been identified, one of which, Bofilliella subarcuata, is a gastropod mollusc considered critically endangered according to the Spanish list of endangered species (RD 139\/2011). Among the subterranean invertebrate species there is quite some diversity (for example, pseudoscorpions, spiders, geckos, molluscs, and so on), which hints at the variety of life in these cavities and the importance of their conservation.<\/p>\n
FLORA<\/p>\n
Near the entrance to the cave, by the sides of the paths, the flora comprises numerous species, mainly herbaceous plants and some shrubs. The microclimatic conditions here\u2014 shade for most of the day and cool wind currents coming from the cave\u2014are suitable for a large number of species. These include several species of fern, indicating the mild and humid climatic conditions, as well as various other common species, such as snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus), Meditarranean spurge (Euphorbia characias) and wild blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius), among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2019, the council of La Cellera de Ter acquired a large area of the Canet mountain\u2014a forest estate thick with Mediterranean holm oak woods located in the north of the municipality, next to the river Ter\u2014with the aim of preserving and raising awareness of its natural and heritage values. Among the most important elements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16997,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categoria":[],"categoria-de-patrimoni":[285],"multi":[317],"tipus-de-museu":[],"tipus-de-patrimoni":[389],"class_list":["post-16538","patrimoni","type-patrimoni","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria-de-patrimoni-archaeological-site","multi-plans","tipus-de-patrimoni-heritage-sites"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n