Avenc de l'Arlà

Although it is cited by Font i Sagué in 1897, by Faura i Sans in 1909 and by J. Ferraté in 1918, none of them provides data about the cavity. On 3 September 1933, Andorrà, Closas, Espanyol, Garí, Morell, Reixach and Semir went to the village of Les Peces, a district of Albinyana, where Lluís Porta and brothers were waiting for them to carry out the exploration of the cavity. A cavity well known to all generations of Catalan speleologists who have visited it frequently. Recently (November 2016), members of the GES Garraf (Sitges) were able to explore a small previously unknown chamber situated at the height of the head of the main pit. They also made a new survey of the whole cavity.

However, it seems that before all these dates, specifically on 4 September 1858, people had already gone down in order to recover the corpse of a person who was murdered and thrown into the interior of the cavity.

The crime of the avenc de l'Arlà: From oral and partly written history, it is known that in a farmhouse now demolished (the mas de l'Adroguera, a little below the mas d'en Mata), false coin was made. The machine used by the counterfeiters broke down often, and they notified a mechanic from Barcelona. Fearful that the criminals would be denounced, they resolved to kill him; thus, they deceived him by telling him that the machine was in a cave in the mountain, they led him to the avenc de l'Arlà, killed him and threw him inside. It seems that a woodcutter found the corpse, and later the culprits were caught.

The rector of the time, mossèn Marià Planells i Cot (1833-70), makes in the book of deaths, under the title “Home incògnit”, a neat and exact description of the deceased's clothing: Als 4 setembre de 1858, en la Montaña del Arlà de esta Parroquia ...dintre de un Avench ... se enquantra un home difunt vestit ab molta desencia, ab una bona capa de paño blau turquí, chaqueta paleto de paño negra, pantalon llana de color de café, chaleco de lana oscur, camisa de percala ab vias bermellas, tapabocas no se coneix lo color, camisa interior de llana blanca y botas enteras de cuyro fi. He notat tots aquestos senyals perque si se presentaba alguna persona que los donés se podria formar lo obit.

Collective memory recalls that the malefactors (Josep Segalà, “el Caset”, who was a son of Albinyana, and Francesc Ventura, “el Fusteret”, from la Bisbal del Penedès) were sentenced to life imprisonment and set to breaking stone in Tarragona; after some years, they say that the one who was a cabinetmaker made a small table for Queen Isabel II, and both were set free.