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Coves de les ànimes

Coves de les ànimes

Interessant conjunt de dues coves (Ànimes I i II), ara comunicades, de 264 m. de recorregut a Sant Llorenç del Munt.

Matadepera • Vallès Occidental264m8m

A set of two caves (Ànimes I and II), now connected, with 264 m of passage in Sant Llorenç del Munt, accessed via the Carena de les Ànimes and joined in 2012 by the pas Boixader.

Characteristics

Location

At the foot of the E slope of the so-called Carena de les Ànimes, to the NE of the summit of the Mola.

The easiest location is following the Font Soleia path, which passes along the eastern slope of the Carena de les Ànimes; you must go almost to the end of it until you find a stone cairn and paint on the trees that mark a gully up which you can climb until reaching a ledge. Here you must go to the left to find another gully and descend it until you find the cave mouth on the right. In the gully where the cave is located you cannot ascend directly from the path.

Mapa

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Boca Ànimes i

    Elevation: 920 m

    41.644920, 2.024640
    UTM 31T (ED 50) 418869 4611017
  2. Boca Ànimes Ii

    Elevation: 910 m

    41.644315, 2.024517
    UTM 31T (ED 50) 418858 4610950
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Coves de les ànimes - Photo, Matadepera, Vallès OccidentalView image
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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 normal access mouth (Ànimes I) has dimensions of 2.5 by 1 metre and is oriented S30W, a direction that the entrance gallery follows for its first 18 metres and varies slightly over the following 17.5 metres until reaching a first crossing. The dimensions are modest throughout its passage, except for the final stretch where it reaches a height of only 0.5 metres.

To the right of the gallery is this first intersection, which gives way to a gallery 12.5 metres long and with an average width of 0.8 metres. At its end it opens into an orthogonal gallery; to the right it continues for about 6 metres more with small steps formed by floor formations.

To the left of the crossing the gallery is divided by a stalagmitic diaphragm that makes it passable both along the lower and the upper part in the first metres, and it continues for a little more than 25 metres and the structural joint is inclined towards the SE. A new crossing at its end gives rise to two small opposing galleries that end filled with sediments.

Positioning ourselves again in the entrance gallery, from the first branch, the gallery continues with good dimensions and soon a new gallery emerges on the left that leads to the outside through the second mouth hanging on the cliff. The main gallery continues a few metres more and then divides into two that considerably diminish in dimensions; the right one remains filled with sediments and the left one remains blocked by a powerful stalagmitic flow that until February 2012 barred the way to the gallery that corresponds to the so-called Cova de les Ànimes II (pas Boixader).

Through a mouth 10 x 1.4 metres hanging on the cliff (Ànimes II) begins a gallery that at 6 metres is intercepted by another orthogonal one about 14 metres long. Continuing along the entrance gallery, about 10 metres after the previous crossing, through a crawlway in “pas de quatre” it opens into the main gallery formed by the fundamental joint of the set of cavities.

To the right it presents small steps caused by floor formations and of very uniform dimensions until reaching the stalagmitic blockage that prevented passage to the Cova de les Ànimes I, now cleared (pas Boixader).

To the left the gallery continues uniform with some small lateral branch of short length. Shortly before the end it splits into two conduits that rejoin 2 metres further on and ends a little beyond, becoming impracticable.

Speleothems

The set presents floor formations and a stalagmitic diaphragm, as well as a powerful stalagmitic flow that until February 2012 barred the way between the two caves.

Progression

From the Cova de les Ànimes I you must climb up to the very edge of the cliff and in a S direction go to seek the point where the descent must begin with a 14-metre rope down the cliff, to reach the Ànimes II.

The passage between the two cavities, called pas Boixader, was cleared on 25 February 2012.

History

The first news known of the cavity corresponds to the exploration carried out by D. Palet i Barba and N. Font i Sagué in the year 1896, as the latter explains in his Catàlech (1897), making a brief description of the cave and attributing to it about 100 metres of passage.

Palet visited it again in 1911 and it seems he found flint and pottery.

In 1922, S. Novelles of the Centre Excursionista de Terrassa accompanied Dr. Zariquiey in the search for fauna.

It is also cited in the Guia monogràfica de Sant Llorenç del Munt, published in 1935 by the Centre Excursionista de Terrassa, where they limit themselves to transcribing the description made by Font i Sagué.

The cave is relatively well known to hikers and the GES of the CMB has visited it regularly since 1949.

But it is not until the early 1970s that members of the Espeleo Club Sabadell carried out an exhaustive campaign, making a very complete study and discovering the Cova de les Ànimes II, which although it forms part of the same set the two cavities were not joined until many years later.

In parallel with these campaigns different archaeological interventions were made, among other finds notable for a Neolithic deposit of a large number of personal ornamentation elements in shell.

In 1995, members of SIRE – UEC Sants surveyed all the cavities again.

Seventeen years later and after different weekends of clearing by members of the GREC (les Corts, Barcelona), the narrow passage was overcome on 25 February 2012 by the youngest member of the group, 15-year-old Avent Sandoval, making a reality the union between the two coves de les Ànimes and it was named pas Boixader in memory of Joan Boixader, a Terrassa speleologist who was very active in the Sant Llorenç de Munt area. (News provided in November 2012 by Jaume Sandoval, GREC).

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Bibliography

  1. Collado, Mª A.; Sandoval, J. (1996).- “Coves de les Ànimes, de les Animetes i de les Ànimes Noves a Sant Llorenç del Munt” Excursionisme (240): 25-30. Unió Excursionista de Catalunya. Barcelona.
  1. Garriga, J.; Freixes,A. (1972).- “La Cova de les Animes (Sant Llorenç del Munt, Barcelona)”. Speleon (19): 53-76. Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Barcelona.
  1. GES-CMB (1974).- Catálogo espeleológico de la provincia de Barcelona. 198 pp. Club Montañés Barcelonés /Diputación Provincial de Barcelona.
  1. Martí, F.; Casanovas, P; Lleonart, J.; Miquel, D. Y Tens, R. (1972).- “El depósito eneolítico de cuentas de collar de la cueva de “Les Animes” (Sant Llorenç del Munt, Barcelona)”. Speleon (19): 77-103. Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Barcelona.
  • Fotografies SIE del CEA facilitades per Antoni Ferro
  • Revisió de coordenades i de situació facilitades per Alfred Montserrat (ERE-CEC). (2012)
  • Actualització de dades i fotografies unió coves (2012) facilitades per Jaume Sandoval (GREC)

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