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Cova de les Encantades

Cova de les Encantades

Cova de 228 m. de recorregut a Cava (Alt Urgell), i a prop de Toloriu.

Cava • Alt Urgell228m22m

Cave with a passage of 228 m in Cava (Alt Urgell), near Toloriu. First record on 23 August 1910 by Jeannel and Racovitza with O. Mengel. Total elevation change of 22 m (+ 13; - 9).

Characteristics

Location

Although it has always been cited at Toloriu, now grouped into the municipality of el Pont de Bar, in reality, and by very few metres, the entrance is located within the municipal area of Cava, although we had mistakenly placed it in that of Arsèguel.

You must leave Toloriu by the paved road and before reaching the junction (Quer-Bar) turn right onto a wide forest track; you can follow the signs of the BTT circuit. You will soon reach the small font del Bon Arbre, then you will find a junction where you continue to the left; soon you will be in the woods, then there is another junction, this time you continue to the right, until you reach a beautiful meadow where the path makes a double S, with a new junction that you follow to the right, climbing, you reach a hairpin bend where on the right a small path branches off along which the BTT route goes; therefore from then on you will no longer find any other bicycle signs.

Continue along the main path and pass a hairpin bend in the middle of the torrent; further on you will find another hairpin bend, where you continue to the left, which is the more worn path; continue through the woods now on a fairly long straight to reach the Collet de Moscalló, where a large meadow begins on the left side of our path.

From here, a path branches off to the right, barely visible at the beginning, which gradually gains slope, passes beside the ruins of the Era del Fuster and in a couple of bends you reach a flat area within the woods where the path fades until you reach the slope of the torrent d'Arsèguel; now we are at about 1520 in altitude; up to here from Toloriu it can take about 90 minutes over a distance of 4.8 kilometres.

Sometimes we find cairns that lead us to the hidden entrance of the cave facing west; a small trail will leave us above the entrance.

Mapa

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Cova de les Encantades

    Elevation: 1509 m

    42.348615, 1.611008
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 385596 4689418
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Cova de les Encantades - Photo, Cava, Alt UrgellView image
Click to enlarge

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

Image 1 of 10

Description

Morphology

The entrance gallery, which is also the main gallery, runs in the direction N20O and from it, along its course, various less important branches emerge.

At 50 metres of passage you reach a chamber 7 metres high by 8 wide and 11 long. This chamber communicates via a small gallery with another of similar characteristics, and both are affected by clastic processes.

The gallery continues with good dimensions and further on, on the left, a new branch appears which after a short passage leads to a shaft 9 metres deep.

Back in the main gallery, in the widest and highest stretch, you continue a few more metres and the ceiling suddenly lowers and the gallery continues in this manner until the end after making a couple of zigzags.

The total elevation change is 22 metres (+ 13; - 9).

History

The first record of this cavity is due to the biospeleologists Jeannel and Racovitza, accompanied by O. Mengel, who visited it on 23 August 1910 for the purpose of collecting fauna, locating a new beetle that they dedicated to their companion: Speonomus mengeli Jeannel.

In 1935, Antoni Bonet (CEC) paid a visit to the cave and found remains of pottery and bones. He already mentions signs of earlier excavations.

In October 1954 an official campaign of study and excavation began by members of the GES - CMB and other collaborators. In the study published in the journal Speleon a first survey appears that seems not to fit very well with the one later made by Josep Castell.

In 1966, the ERE - CEC began a new campaign, basically focused on archaeology and biospeleology, throughout this sector of the Alt Urgell and the Cerdanya, and this cavity was also studied.

Bio

Coleoptera:

Speonomus mengeli Jeannel

Geotrechus seijasi

Diplopoda:

Scutogona muticum

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Bibliography

Boixadera, E.; Suñé, E.; Vicente, J. (1955).-'La cueva de 'les Encantades' Toloriu (Lérida)'. Speleon VI (1-2): 21-36. Universidad de Oviedo.



Bonet i Isart, Antoni (1935).-'Unes descobertes prehistòriques'. Butlletí del Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (486): 417-422. Barcelona.



Borràs, J.; Miñarro, J.M.; Talavera, F.(1978).-'Alt Urgell i la Cerdanya' CatàlegEspeleològic de Catalunya (Vol.2):1-186. Ed. Políglota. Barcelona.



Canals, M; Ribera,C. Viñas, R.(1970).-La Fou de Bor i cavitats de l'Alta Vall del Segre. Ed. Montblanc.



Faura i Sans, Mn.(1911).-'Excursiones espeleológicas realizadas durante el año 1910 en la región Catalana'. Boletin Real Soc. Esp. Hist. Natural (11):354-376.



Valles, J. de (2009).- Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya. Vol. 2: 384 pp. Espeleo Club de Gràcia / Federació Catalana d'Espeleologia. Barcelona.



Situació extreta de www.toloriu.com



Revisió de coordenades i fotografies boca facilitades per Alfred Montserrat (ERE-CEC) (2015)



Fotografies interiors extretes del web: espeleodijous.cat corresponents a la sortida del 28-8-2025

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