Dry stone route-Avinyonet de Puigventós. Route 19 Alt Empordà

The Garriga d'Empordà is made up of the municipalities of Avinyonet de Puigventós, Biure, Llers, Pont de Molins and Vilanant. In this territory there are numerous dry stone constructions. The dry stone huts of the Garriga certainly have a historical value, as they are an element that allows us to explain the ways of life, agricultural exploitation, and economy in general, and the forms of ownership of this entire geographical area. They have an architectural, ethnological, documentary and technical value, as examples of popular construction techniques and their evolution in a specific place. Likewise, they have a landscape value, since they configure a characteristic landscape, and an identity value for the entire area where they extend.

There are various initiatives to preserve and explore this architectural heritage. Since 2014, numerous shacks have been declared BCIL (local cultural interest) to protect them and promote their restoration. From the Observatori del Paisatge de Catalunya has also been created a collaborative initiative called Wikipedra to collect information on dry stone constructions throughout Catalonia; currently, moret han 600 constructions are inventoried in the Garriga d’Empordà area.

We propose itineraries to explore dry stone constructions in these municipalities. We identify the constructions with the Wikipedra code or with the local name by which they are known. In some, you will find a QR code from ubi.cat that will provide you with more information; we have highlighted them in bold.

The route begins at the intersection of Itinerànnia AE197 in Avinyonet de Puigventós, at the cross of Vilanant Street (GIV-5101 road) with the old Avinyonet road, just behind Mas Camins. Remember that, in addition to orientation signs, the path is marked with yellow paint marks. In some sections, you will also find signs of healthy itineraries.

We follow the stretch of the old paved road, and after a short while, it will be a dirt track. We will follow it, always attentive to the yellow paint marks, until we reach the first intersection AP2.

The route gives us the opportunity to visit the huts in the Rec de les Costes or Garrigueta area. Our recommendation is to head towards the huts of Rec de les Costes and leave those of Garrigueta for the return of the route.

We continue straight, after a few meters, we find another intersection AP3 and and we turn left. We continue along the dirt track for a stretch until the yellow marks indicate a turn to the right to go towards the forest. Next to hut 12495, we see yellow marks on both sides (a sign post is missing), we must go up to go up towards the Les Costes rec (on the right).

The path begins to climb until we find a wooden post without signs (here they are also missing and therefore we see yellow marks on both sides), we continue climbing to the right. After a few meters we find a fence for cattle that we must cross and following the yellow marks we begin to climb the cattle path.

The path passing by hut code 12428 and we continue climbing a cattle road recently recovered.

A bit further up, there is hut 12427. We follow the path parallel to the rec de les Costes, and at the top, we find a new intersection AP4; from this point, we can reach two huts, 12449 and 12503. Once seen, we have just gone up a few meters following the direction to Avinyonet along Garrigueta.

After 50 meters, we find hut 12450 we walk around and continue down where there are three more huts, very close together: 12683, 12682, and 12681. We continue descending, passing by another hut, 12497, and find a new intersection AP5 that proposes go  to hut 12499 an return, some people say it resembles a spaceship.

We continue the descent along the path there is hut 14787 and at the end of the descent, we again find the wooden post without indicative signs. Following the yellow marks we return along the same path to hut 12495. There are marks on both sides, now we go to the right along the so-called camí de la Garriga; There are a couple more huts, close to the road, 12438 and 10038, and at the end we find AP6 intersection that will take us to the huts in the Garrigueta area.

In the area, there are a large number of huts, but it is difficult to access because the paths are full of kernes oaks. There are  Parés (9901), Civada (10026), 10024 and 10028 huts.

We continue the path until the intersection we found at the beginning of the route AP2 and head towards the center of Avinyonet, where we will arrive in about fifteen minutes.