Montseny Santa Fe to Breda via Sant Martí de Riells

About Montseny Santa Fe to Breda via Sant Marti de Riells

The route starts at Avet Blau hostel restaurant in Santa Fe de Monseny, next to the Sagales 573 bus stop and follows a path via the Centre d'Informacio Can Casades through a picnic area to the Santa Fe Hostel.

Continue along the forest path parallel to the panta de Santa Fe (reservoir lake) until reaching the dam wall. The trail crosses the dam taking a right forestall trail after exiting the dam wall path. Note the spectacular views from the dam and ends of the dam.

At the end of the dam the camí de can folguerrola takes us into a beautiful forest on a gradual downhill path until we reach a left turn uphill path in the forest. This trail remains in the dense forest until we reach a right turn that is a flat section of trail leading onto an area of thinner forest where we get views of the valley down below.

The route is down hill through the forest via a way point called Portel del bisbe (Bishops portel). The path is an old monks trail to santa fe de Montseny. The trail crosses several small streams as it snakes down the mountain through ancient forests interspersed with rock formations and views over the landscape.

The trail runs parallel to a mountain river, Sot de Gal Cat and crosses it several times. Here the trail changes onto a rural road leading into the tiny village of Riells with a small church and outlying farmhouses. This is a nice place to stop for a short break about half way along the route.

From Riells, behind the church the route joins the GR-83 trail continuing down through forests of cork trees along rural gravel roads and footpaths till it parallels the Riera de Sant Llop (river) into Riells i Viabrea town.

Riells i Viabrea is a small town of residential houses and not much else. Near to the station is a pizzeria but on the day that I did this hike it was closed. Passing the pizzeria the road reaches the railway lines with an underpass to cross into the Riells i Viabrea-Breda renfe station. This is an unmanned station with no facilities.

If you arrive and find a long wait for the next train, it is worth calling a taxi for the short trip to Sant Celoni station which has frequent trains and a cafeteria for food and drinks. A taxi will cost about 25 euros.

A litle History

Panta de Santa Fe reservoir and hotel (now a hostel) was built at the beginning of the 20th century by Ramón de Montaner Vila, a publisher from Barcelona, who was building a hotel in the area. He bought the Santa Fe valley in the Montseny Range from the Alfaras family of Sant Celoni and construction of the hotel began in 1912 with a small dam being built to provide water. It soon became apparent that a larger dam was needed.

Ramón tried to pass the project onto his nephew, Lluís Domènech i Montaner (famous Catalan architect who's most priminent works are the Palau de la Música and Sant Pau Hospital). The project went to architect Pere Domènech i Roura, son of Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The Current dam is built from local granite and was completed in 1935 creating a storage reservoir of capacity 899 thousand cubed metres, providing hydro electricity for the nearby town of Gualba.

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