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Cova de Santa Fe

Cova de Santa Fe

Espectacular cova que travessa part del cingle de la Muntanya de Santa Fe (Coll de Nargó-Organyà)

Coll de Nargó • Alt Urgell61m18m

Cave that crosses part of the cingle of the Muntanya de Santa Fe, between Coll de Nargó and Organyà, with an entrance in each municipality.

Characteristics

Location

Access is via the road that goes from Organyà to Montanissell; 750 metres before reaching the Font Bordonera leisure area we find on the right a wide area to leave the vehicle. From here we follow the road for 185 metres in the direction of the Font Bordonera; just before reaching the torrent we climb straight uphill crossing the water channel and following a faint torrent where from time to time we find a cairn and some yellow paint marks. After a small rock step, we find a path on the left that then follows another tàlveg to a collet; after the collet we climb uphill again to the base of the wall, and we head for the west face of the spur where we find the large entrance on the Coll de Nargó side. This cavity has as a curious fact that the municipal boundary passes through the middle of the cavity, with an entrance in each municipality. Once the cave has been crossed through the interior and we are at the East entrance on the Organyà side, we must descend a little among the vegetation and then head for the base of the wall, where we will find a terrace about 20 metres long and about 3 metres wide; we follow it until the terrain allows us to descend downhill and return to the torrent by which we had climbed.

Both one entrance and the other are a vulture nesting area, so care must be taken not to disturb them.

Mapa

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Boca Coll de Nargó

    Elevation: 997 m

    42.206726, 1.301251
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 359767 4674126
  2. Boca Organyà

    Elevation: 1006 m

    42.206732, 1.302059
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 359834 4674125
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Cova de Santa Fe - Photo, Coll de Nargó, 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 12

Description

Morphology

The main entrance is located at Coll de Nargó; it has a portal almost 8 metres wide by 23 metres high. A steep upward ramp that in some points exceeds 45º leads us to the foot of a vertical rise of a little more than 3 metres in height but easily climbable; the upper part is the highest point of the cavity, +18.5 metres. Here the cavity closes leaving a passage 1 metre in diameter. The cavity begins to descend with a slight slope and the gallery becomes wider; on the right there is a narrower parallel conduit that also crosses both sides. We find a 2 metre rise that is descended without difficulty followed by another of 1.45 metres; here the gallery gains width and height. On the left part of the base of the rise there is a short conduit of 3 metres forming a small chamber. The gallery continues descending on a slope until reaching the portal that gives onto Organyà; this is 6 metres wide by 18 metres high.

If we position ourselves at the base of the entrance on the West side of the cavity, the one corresponding to Coll de Nargó, we will see that in this same direction a closed channel begins that climbs up a very steep earth ramp where at the end we find a rock shelter about 15 metres deep.

Progression

Once the cave has been crossed through the interior and we are at the East entrance on the Organyà side, we must descend a little among the vegetation and then head for the base of the wall, where we will find a terrace about 20 metres long and about 3 metres wide; we follow it until the terrain allows us to descend downhill and return to the torrent by which we had climbed.

Other details

It is very likely that this cavity as well as the same channel and the cova de Santa Fe geologically formed part of one and the same complex, which has been partially dismantled by the exterior erosion of the cinglera.

History

Cavity known since ancient times in the area.

Pascual Madoz in his Diccionario geográfico ... (1846) cites the “Caverna de Bulurmini o de Santa Fe”. In 1896, Puig y Larraz includes this reference in his Cavernas y simas de España, adding that it is found “en las cercanias de la alquería de Cellent” (sic) (Sallent). The following year, Font i Sagué, in his Catàlech Espeleològich de Catalunya (1897) again includes the previous data. It seems quite evident that they refer to the Cova d'Ormini, as Faura calls it after the visit he made in August 1910, but keeping the previous names as synonyms. But... why Cova de Santa Fe? As Senent and Victoria (1965) already observe, the Muntanya de Santa Fe is a long way from the Cova d'Ormini. We could speculate whether Madoz's informant cited two caves to him and he made an erroneous interpretation giving the two names to the same cavity and the one of Santa Fe was the one we catalogue now.

On the other hand it is quite strange that this cave has never been catalogued, since the large entrance of the cave is perfectly visible when driving along the road from Montanissell to Organyà. It should be said that at the end of 2011 the cavity was mentioned in a wikiloc route but without too many details.

Bio

Both one entrance and the other are a vulture nesting area, so care must be taken not to disturb them.

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Bibliography

  • Dades de la situació i coordenades facilitades per Joan Nadal i Josep Lluís Ruiz Bellet (Centre Excursionista de Lleida)
  • Dades, topografia i fotografies facilitades per Juli Serrano (SIE-CEA) i Francesc Rubinat (ERE-CEC).

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