This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
Southwest of Barcelona, in the Catalonia region, the Costa Daurada combines golden beaches, rocky terrain, centuries-old monasteries, unbridled food and far from vile vineyards. A delightful complement to an often saturated capital that needs to breathe.
Last July, exasperated Barcelonans targeted tourists sitting on terraces by spraying them with water pistols. As bizarre as it may be, this stunt speaks volumes about the fed-up attitude of the residents of the beautiful Catalan capital, who sometimes have to elbow each other out during the peak tourist season.
To give them a break, you can either visit Barcelona in the low season or explore its surroundings. By heading to the Costa Daurada, for example.
Master table
When the pastry chef at the Michelin-starred Els Tallers restaurant began to smear the table with jets of liquid chocolate, fruit and candy shards, the “ohs” and “ahs” went off from all sides.
Rather than serving dessert on plates, the master of treats instead set about creating a painting that was as high in calories as it was unique, right on the table, before the guests attacked his work with spoons. A creation worthy of an abstract painting — almost Miró, with a dominant brown color — which was, however, not surprising in this Catalonia accustomed to creativity.
Here, inspiration seemed to come from the sky: Els Tallers is located in Siurana, a charming village perched high in the hinterland of the Costa Daurada. The place is as famous for the vertigo created by its eminence as for the vestiges of its past: it was from the top of one of its cliffs that the Moorish queen Abdelazia is said to have thrown herself to avoid being handed over to the Christians during the Reconquista.
In a region long under Arab occupation, a few crumbs of Saracen presence persist. But at the time, the Church was quick to sweep them away to establish its authority regained by the Reconquest.
The Cistercian Route
In the valleys and heights of the Costa Daurada, where the rusty ochre relief is covered with scrubland, olive groves and vineyards, a multitude of hermitages and monasteries still stand, particularly on the Ruta del Cister, the route of the monasteries.
The monastery of Santa Maria de Vallbona is still inhabited by nuns who welcome pilgrims in search of retreat, while the monastery of Santes Creus embodies the Cistercian spirit through its simplicity. Not far from the charming fortified village of Montblanc, the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Poblet shines with its august beauty.
Founded in 1151 and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Poblet is still inhabited by around thirty monks who share their lives between prayer, welcoming visitors and… viticulture.
“In wine truth”
It is thanks to the monks that wine culture spread to the Costa Daurada. In Priorat, it was first born around the monastery of Santa Maria d’Escaladei, founded by Carthusians from Provence. Its 17th century cellarse century still serve to age the blood of the Catalan land, at the foot of the austere mountains of the Montsant natural park.
Beginning in 1263, viticulture has made Priorat a Catalan wine mecca, which now enjoys a DOC (controlled designation of origin). Its terraced vines bite into llicorella, a slate that retains moisture and heat, and the robust wines produced there have as much body as the soil from which they come.
Further north, on the neighbouring Costa Barcelona, lightness is the order of the day: in the sparkling Penedès region, 90% of cava, this tasty “Catalan champagne” is produced. ». Home to the Torres, Codorniu and Parés Baltà houses, Penedès has a DO and is renowned for its lively whites and full-bodied reds. They are drunk in the cellar, accompanied by tapas or Iberian ham, or in the tavern space of the Vinseum, the museum of wine cultures of Catalonia in Vilafranca — a town known for its castellers, the famous Catalan “human castles”.
Of the 150 vineyards in Penedès, 70 have a cellar to visit, and several offer room and board to prolong the experience — or to shamelessly indulge in the divine bottle, depending on your point of view.
Roman Tarragona
Heading due south, you soon reach the Mediterranean. While a multitude of seaside resorts (Salou, Cambrils, etc.) dot this “golden coast”, it is also possible to take a dip in history in Tarragona. In addition to being crisscrossed by medieval alleys in its center, ancient Tarraco has seen the ruins of its forums, amphitheaters and circuses praised by UNESCO.
Between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, we enjoy strolling along the Archaeological Promenade, which runs along the medieval ramparts for almost 2 km, before taking the Rambla, which follows the route of the ancient Via Augusta — the Roman road that once linked Cadiz to Rome.
Further south, we can now see Reus, the city where the illustrious architect Antonio Gaudí was born and lived until the age of 16, whose centre that bears his name allows us to better grasp the feverish world.
From Gaudí to Miró
One wonders what is in the water (or wine) of the Costa Daurada, because 15 km away, it is in Mont-roig del Camp that Joan Miró spent countless summers putting down on canvas the bursts of his imagination.
Enhanced by the Mas Miró Foundation, the house of the surrealist master still houses the studio where “all his work was conceived”, the same place where he decided to devote himself to painting in 1911, after a depression.
When we explore the surroundings of Mont-roig, which form Miró’s “emotional landscape”, we quickly understand that he was able to find inspiration there, but also to regain his morale.
The author was the guest of the Catalan Tourism Agency, which had no say in the text.
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