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Avenc de Sant Antoni

Avenc de Sant Antoni

Cave with 82 m of passage in the N of Cunit (Baix Penedès), known and degraded, with an archaeological site from the Neolithic and the Iron Age.

Cunit • Baix Penedès 82m 7m

Cave with 82 m of passage in the N of Cunit (Baix Penedès), known and degraded, with an archaeological site from the Neolithic and the Iron Age.

Characteristics

Location

To the N of Cunit (Baix Penedès). Coming from Cubelles along the C-31, the Barcelona road, at the height of the "La Rueda" campsite, we will turn right onto the Sant Antoni road, pass the recycling centre and the Cucona de la Portadora, and further on pass under the C-32. Very soon we find an open lot on the right with signposts (Turó de l'Avenc) for hiking trails. Here we will leave the car to continue on foot along a track closed with a chain, where we will follow the blue markers. We will then turn off onto a path, uphill, to reach, after five minutes of walking, the lower entrance of the cave on our left.

Map

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Sant Antoni, Avenc de

    Elevation: 113 m

    41.217767, 1.637596
    UTM 31T (ED 50) 385890 4564030
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Avenc de Sant Antoni - Photo, Cunit, Baix PenedèsView image
Click to enlarge

Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

Image 1 of 4

Description

Morphology

An excavation of 6 metres of passage in the form of a trench, on the slope of the hill, brings us to an old metal door 1.70 metres high and 0.80 metres wide. Once through it we find an artificially excavated tunnel (1.50 x 1 m.) 2.50 metres long that leads us to a chamber, already in the natural cave, which shows clear signs of having been excavated and its sediments removed, in order to level the ground, leaving in the centre some "islets" of the old sediments that are 1.70 metres high.

If we advance to the right we will find a ledge at + 2.40 metres high, where there is an abandoned nest, and behind it continues a narrow crawlway, not accessible.

Continuing to inspect the chamber along the right wall, we will reach a gallery of about 10 metres, at the end a crawlway leads us to another small gallery 3 metres long, 0.50 wide and 1.80 high that ends with a turn to the left and a step that continues with a one-metre micro-crawlway.

Returning to the entrance of the crawlway, on our left there is a flat-out passage that allows us to enter a few metres and which, although we cannot progress due to the narrowness, we do know acoustically that it communicates with another point that we will discuss later.

Turning back we will see the light from outside and we will approach another chamber where, on the ceiling, we see the mouth of the pit. In the past this must have been the only entrance to the cave.

It is a mouth 0.84 x 0.75 metres with the remains of an old trapdoor that covered the access. This shaft is 3.40 metres deep. The chamber has a cone of debris from outside, and, in a W direction, a small descending gallery of about 7 metres of passage becomes narrower until it turns into an impenetrable crawlway. On the right, another crawlway is the one that communicates acoustically with the one described above.

If we return to the entrance, and go to the left, after the "islets" we will find a climb and we will soon reach the small chamber of the aforementioned shaft.

History

A cave known since long ago in the area, from the archaeological excavations we know that it was a stopping point of the first settlers of the Cunit area, a site catalogued as historical heritage of Catalonia. It is a natural pit with a Neolithic burial and an approximate chronology of -5500/-2200 years and also remains from the Iron Age (-650/-50). There are biospeleological and malacological citations. Despite everything and, due to its closure for many years by the owner of the Cal Marquès estate (it had been used to grow mushrooms), the cave remained unpublished speleologically. A few years ago the original entrance door was already open, a circumstance that caused an excessive influx of visitors and has rapidly deteriorated the cave ("graffittis", rubbish, breakages).

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Bibliography

  1. Altimira, C. (1970).- “Moluscos y conchas recogidos en cavidades subterráneas”. Speleon (17): 67-75. Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Barcelona.
  1. Balcells, E. (1959).- “Quirópteros de cuevas españolas recolectados desde 1955 a 1958”. Speleon X (1-2): 75-94. Universidad de Oviedo.
  1. Borràs, J.; Miñarro, J.M.; Talavera, F.(1978).-”l'Alt Camp, la Conca de Barberà, el Baix Penedès i el Tarragonès” Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (Vol.2):1-246. Ed. Políglota. Barcelona.
  • Totes les dades, topografia i fotografies ha estat extretes del blog: Espeleobloc (post del 6-9-2012). Fitxa original d'Enric Porcel (GE Badalona)

Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/