Cova de les Arcades

Small cave in the Alta Garrotxa, near Sant Andreu de Lliurona and the house of les Arcades, used as a storeroom.

Albanyà • Alt Empordà 21m 3m

EspeleoWorld

Cova de les Arcades

Small cave in the Alta Garrotxa, near Sant Andreu de Lliurona and the house of les Arcades, used as a storeroom.

Albanyà · Alt Empordà

Length: 21 m · Depth: 3 m

Updated record

https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/cova-de-les-arcades

Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.

Topographic map of the main entrance — Main entrance · ICGC topographic map

Small cave in the Alta Garrotxa, near Sant Andreu de Lliurona and the house of les Arcades, used as a storeroom.

Characteristics

Type: Cave
Municipality: Albanyà
Region: Alt Empordà
Unit: Alta Garrotxa
Length: 21 meters
Depth: 3 meters
Major Unit: Prepirineu
Lithology: Limestone
Updated on EspeleoÍndex: October 12, 2025

Location

Less than a kilometre east of Sant Andreu de Lliurona. Only 65 m west of the house of les Arcades, not far from the hill of the same name. To get there, one starts from Beuda, where a track begins that is largely asphalted or cemented. After following it for about 10 km, and about 200 m before reaching the turn-off that leads to Sant Andreu de Lliurona, a secondary track branches off to the right. One follows it for about 500 m and, before reaching the house of les Arcades, one passes along the upper part of a meadow - former cultivated fields - that descends in steps towards the south. One goes down it and, before reaching the end, one enters the wood on the left-hand side to find very soon the depression where the cavity opens.

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

Cova de les Arcades
Elevation: 752 m
42.293698, 2.698541
UTM 31T (ETRS89) 475149 4682430
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Topographic

Cova de les Arcades - Topography, Albanyà, Alt Empordà

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

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Photos

Cova de les Arcades - Photo, Albanyà, Alt Empordà

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

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Description

Morphology

The cave opens at the northern end of a doline or collapse karst depression of more or less elliptical shape measuring 15x8 metres, with a maximum depth of 4 m. Shortly after entering there is a door, crudely made with a grille, which gives access to a room of irregular configuration used as a storeroom and measuring 9x9 metres, with a maximum height of about 3.5 m. While the northern wall of the cave is determined by a bedding plane, the southern wall is a pile of large blocks from the collapse of the former roof. From the room a couple of short crawls branch off, with which the cavity totals a length of 21 m with a vertical extent of 3 m.

The cave was formed following the directions of a bedding plane that dips about 40 degrees to the north, perfectly identifiable along its entire northern wall. On the southern side, especially visible in the room, there is a pile of blocks whose origin is the collapse of the roof of the original room. That is to say, initially the room was more extensive, but given the proximity of the roof to the outer surface, it collapsed entirely, giving rise to the pile of blocks and the consequent outer depression caused by the collapse.

Speleothems

In the cave some speleothems of modest development can be found.

History

Because it lies very close to the house of les Arcades (in fact a construction for agricultural and livestock use), the cave has been used as a storeroom, with a crude door at the entrance to the room. Among other things, there are empty boxes, a large metal drum, some cages and also a carner that indicates that the cave was used for food preservation, taking advantage of its relative coolness compared with the summer heat outside.

The first written reference to this cave is found in the book Santa Maria del Mont. Notícia històrica d'aquest santuari, published in 1931 and authored by the historian and populariser Pere Vayreda Olivas (1877-1944). The book ends with some appendices, the first of which is entitled Balmes i habitacions humanes primitives que hi ha esparses per la muntanya. Without intending to, Pere Vayreda had published the first catalogue of the Alta Garrotxa, in which 21 cavities located in the mountains surrounding the sanctuary of the Mont are mentioned and, among them, the cova de les Arcades, of which he limits himself to saying: prop del casalot d'aquest nom.

This document was located by Francesc Miret (GEB) and the cavity was included in the publication Coves de l'Alta Garrotxa by F. Miret, F. Alfambra and M. Garcia (1991), but without being able to provide new data.

It is not until the end of November 2024 that members of the ECM Barcelonès and the GE Badalona, with the directions of l'Albert Sancho d'Olot, visit the cavity and carry out the cataloguing work.

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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 9-12-2024. Dades: Ferran Cardona (ECM Barcelonès), Josep Cuenca, Xavier Samarra, Francesc Miret (GE Badalona) i Albert Sancho (Olot)