Literary routes of Vall d’Àssua and El Batlliu

Reading a book often becomes a journey where the words and phrases of the author intermingle with the reader’s imagination. The landscape of this journey is the line between one thing and another.

Among these geographies, half imaginary, half real, lies the Vall d’Àssua, a small and unknown Pyrenean valley that, to varying degrees, has slipped into the pages of several successful novels. Jaume Cabré, in Les Veus del Pamano; Maria Barbal, in Pedra de Tartera, País Íntim, or Mel i Metzines; Josep Virós, years ago, in Verd Madur… all, each in their own way and within their genre, speak of a rural world in evolution, where the protagonists feel firmly connected and which decisively influences their lives.

We don’t exactly know what has made the Vall d’Àssua and El Batlliu the settings for all these books; perhaps it has largely been due to chance or perhaps it is that they possess an evocative aura that attracts creative minds. Whatever the case, rediscovered through reading, the landscapes of the Vall d’Àssua and El Batlliu reveal new nuances that make them even more special.

As a result, the project “La Vall d’Àssua i el Batlliu, un paisatge de novel·la” (The Vall d’Àssua and El Batlliu, a novel landscape) offers a series of itineraries that will lead you through this real and fictional geography. Special attention has been paid to never disrupt this balance, as literary landscapes are never real landscapes. Therefore, the itineraries and places are often presented as a game, in which the reader must discover a mountain, a village, a house… In this way, the itineraries have been designed for lovers of reading and walking, but also for all those who want to be enchanted by a landscape that has managed to maintain its novel-like essence.

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