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Cova de Nialó

Cova de Nialó

Small cave of historical interest west of Montblanc, known since time immemorial and linked to Elionor d'Aragó.

Montblanc • Conca de Barberà 24m

Small cave of historical interest west of Montblanc, known since time immemorial and linked to Elionor d'Aragó.

Characteristics

Location

From l'Espluga de Francolí a track leads to the ermita de la Santíssima Trinitat, where we find a recreation area. Here we will leave the car and take the ascending track, closed with a chain, which will lead us to a signposted junction of tracks: the one on the right will take us to the lloc de les Masies, and the one on the left will take us to the ermita de Sant Joan (GR-175, which goes from Lleida to Tarragona). We will continue along the path towards the ermita, we will follow about 2.5 Km until we find a small path on the right that climbs over a small hill that will take us to the ermita de Sant Joan de la Muntanya. When we arrive we will go up the stairs that cross the whole construction and come out on the upper side; here we will find a viewpoint, on one side a path protected with railings and chains starts, which, in a few minutes, will take us to the cova de Nialó.

Map

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Nialó, Cova de

    Elevation: 706 m

    41.373212, 1.127572
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 343414 4581880
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Cova de Nialó - Photo, Montblanc, Conca de BarberàView 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

The cave has the appearance of a large rock shelter 5 metres high by 6 metres wide. The cavity has two galleries: one in the form of a joint 11 metres long, and the other with a low ceiling that crosses from side to side and comes out to the exterior with a length of 13 metres. In total the cave presents 24 metres of passage.

History

Known since time immemorial. Joan Ferraté already mentions it in his work Espeleologia de les comarques tarragonines (1918), making mention of the stay of Elionor d'Aragó, sister of Jaume II d'Urgell, el Dissortat, the last count of Urgell and candidate for the Crown of Aragon during the Compromís de Casp.

At the mouth of the cave we find a plaque that refers to the stay in this cave as a penitent of the princess Elionor d'Aragó i Montferrat or Elionor d'Urgell (? 1378 – Ermita de Sant Joan (Montblanc), Conca de Barberà, 28 de maig de 1430), infanta of Urgell, who retired to live as a hermit. In the town of Montblanc she is popularly known as Nialó, a contraction of N'Elionor.

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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 14-2-2018. Autors: Josep Cuenca i F. Xavier Samarra

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