Dry stone route- Vilanant. Route 23 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.

In Vilanant, we start on Carrer Mestre Josep Llambrich, where we find the intersection of Itinerànnia VN14. We continue in the direction of Llers, we go towards Plaça Major  and continue towards Carrer del Bosc, turn left, and after a few meters, turn right onto Carrer de Llers, reaching the road where we find the intersection AE194 Vilanant. In addition to the directional signs, to follow the route, the path is marked with yellow paint marks.

We continue in the direction indicated to Llers and the signs of the route. We take the so-called path from Llers to Vilanant, after approximately one and a half kilometers, we find the intersection VN1 Riera de Rissec. If you want to take a short route, it is possible to start going up the forest track. We head towards the huts in the Coma Forcada area, at the beginning, we find the intersection VN2, a few meters we find the intersection VN3, from this point we can take a tour of the Coma Forcada site,  we continue to the right, we find a beautiful viewpoint of the Empordà plain. Always following the yellow markings, we find the hut of Pep de la Teresa, the path turns, and we will continue until we find Cabañó's hut. Next to it, we find the intersection VN4; we can take this path to hut 13213 and back. Next, we find Anna Maria Puig's hut and Salvatar's hut. Always following the yellow markings, we continue a few meters and find the intersection VN3;  backtrack to the VN2 intersection and we continue towards Olivet d'en Vicenç and the huts of the Clot Baix area. We get there after 400 meters.

We find the intersection AE192 Olivet d'en Vicenç; we continue straight, and after a few meters, we find the intersection VN5 Clot Baix; at this point, the route can go on both sides. Our proposal is to go to the right, where after a few meters, we find the first huts the 11895 and 11894. We continue going up, and a little further on, we find hut 13078, to the right between fields, there are also the huts 13070 and 13077.

Now we advance through a stretch of path between walls that has been recently recovered until we reach the intersection LLE12; very close there ar the hut 9963. We go to the left, following the layout of the cattle road, the termener wall between Llers and Vilanant, also recently recovered. At this point, we can also link up with Llers' pedra seca route.

When we have gone a few meters following the termener wall, we find the intersection VN6; we can go to see hut 10101 located in the Bellaire area, it is about 150 meters away. We could continue along Llers' pedra seca route, but our proposal is to go back to the intersection and start going down.

To the right and between the kernes oaks, a bit far from the path, in the Clot Alt area, there are two more huts 10104 and 10102. A little further down, next to the path, we find another hut, 13668. The path continues down, and we reach the intersection VN5. To return to the starting point of the route, we go back the same way we went up.

After a few meters we find the intersection AE192 and continue always towards Vilanant. At the intersection VN2, we leave the Coma Forcada area to our left and continue the return to the village. If we have taken the short route, after a few meters, we reach the intersection VN1 where we started the route. If we started in Vilanant, we continue down the track until we reach the road. When we cross, we find the intersection AE194 and continue towards the center of Vilanant, to the Main Square and Mestre Llambrich street, where we started the route.