Balma d'en Ranella
Curiosa i amagada cova de 16 m de recorregut a Sales de Llierca (Garrotxa)
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Balma d'en Ranella
Curiosa i amagada cova de 16 m de recorregut a Sales de Llierca (Garrotxa)
Sales de Llierca · Garrotxa
Length: 16 m · Depth: 10 m
Updated record
https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/balma-d-en-ranella
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A 16 m cave in Sales de Llierca (Garrotxa), hidden in the forest, with an entrance shelter 9 m by 4 m, a pool and a 9 m chimney. Known by the name of Bonaventura Güell Collell, alias Ranella, who hid there in 1920.
Topographic
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Photos
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Description
Morphology
Cavity situated in a wild and hidden corner of the forest. Its mouth, in the manner of a shelter, is 9 m wide by 4 m high, but within a few metres it narrows, giving rise to an opening 4 m wide by 2 m high that leads to a single small chamber at the end of which there is a pool. The most curious feature is a 9 m high chimney that rises from the centre of the small chamber and in which phreatic erosion forms can be observed.
Hydrology
The pool may hold more or less water depending on the rainy season. On the visit carried out in September 2025 there were about four fingers of water, but on one side a low gallery continues totally submerged along a route of three metres, when it seems to end filled to the brim. The pool has been modified by the hand of man, placing stones in the form of a slab as a containment in order to increase the capacity of the stored water. We wonder whether it would be the work of en Ranella from when he stayed there.
It is said that in times of heavy rain the cavity can emit a stream of water, acting in the manner of a spring. In fact we observe a channel excavated in the ground that is born from the pool.
Other details
The place name 'Bauma d'en Ranella' appears lettered both on the ICGC map and on the Editorial Alpina map 'Alta Garrotxa' in the correct place.
Despite these antecedents, the cavity has passed fairly unnoticed by speleologists. The Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (Vol-3, year 2009), by Jordi de Valles, is limited to a brief reference to the cavity with data that were provided to him by Francesc Miret and Gener Aymamí, but there is no data on precise location, characteristics nor, of course, topography.
And it was precisely Francesc Miret who proposed the exploration and cataloguing of this cavity within the framework of the 'Operació Alta Garrotxa-2025', carried out by members of the ECM Barcelonès and the GE Badalona.
History
Known by the local people for a very long time.
The name and history of the cavity are linked to a fateful character, Bonaventura Güell Collell, alias Ranella, who in 1920 hid there fleeing from justice for the shooting murder of the mayor of Sales de Llierca, Miquel Quer Grau, known as en Quelot de Can Pedregós, when he was returning from the dance of the festival of the Roser of Tortellà. En Ranella was a neighbour of Tortellà and had fought in the war of Cuba. Out of jealousy he did not accept that en Quelot would marry the younger sister of his wife and he decided to murder him. Once the animosity that en Ranella held towards en Quelot was known, he soon became a suspect and, although his wife, Gerònima Guinó, gave him an alibi, in the end both of them ended up detained and imprisoned in Olot. After two days, however, en Ranella, shod in clogs, managed to escape from the prison, crossed the Fluvià and escaped towards the mountain and hid for many months in the shelter that now bears his name, where he had water and fed on forest fruits and game.
The authorities had lost track of him and it was reckoned that he would have managed to cross the border and elude justice, when someone saw him in the surroundings of the shelter. The sometent was called out and a great manhunt was mounted which, not without difficulties, finally managed to capture him. Other sources say that en Ranella was captured by the civil guard by following the trail of his bitch, which led them to the shelter where he was hiding.
En Ranella, who also confessed a previous crime committed in 1909, was sentenced to many years in prison, but he only served a few, since his mental state was taken into account and he benefited from a pardon on the occasion of the proclamation of the Republic in 1931. But his freedom lasted little; he died riddled with shots on a verge of the Figueres road on the Empordà side in a purge of a revolutionary committee during the war. They say it was a revenge orchestrated by people close to en Quelot, the mayor he murdered. Crime chronicle of those times.
The story of en Ranella is collected in the two-volume book 'Històries de l'Alta Garrotxa', of which Josep Vilar is the author.
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Bibliography
Totes les dades, topografia i fotografies han estat extretes del web: geb.cat (del Grup d'Espeleologia de Badalona). Apunt del 16-9-2025. Dades: Ferran Cardona (ECM Barcelonès) i Francesc Miret (GE Badalona)
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Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/