Sistema Coves de les Vetes - Frare
A group of submarine caves at l'Estartit, with more than 500 m of passage, formed by the Coves dels Frares and the Cova de les Vetes, connected underwater.
EspeleoWorld
Sistema Coves de les Vetes - Frare
A group of submarine caves at l'Estartit, with more than 500 m of passage, formed by the Coves dels Frares and the Cova de les Vetes, connected underwater.
Torroella de Montgrí · Baix Empordà
Length: 545 m · Depth: 20 m
Updated record
https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/coves-del-frare
Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.
A group of submarine caves at l'Estartit, with more than 500 m of passage, formed by the Coves dels Frares and the Cova de les Vetes, connected underwater.
Topographic
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Photos
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Description
Morphology
Coves dels Frares: a characteristic group of three entrance mouths, also known as les Tres Coves. The central one is a typical sea cave that presents a gallery about 60 m long that can be followed at sea level to the back. Towards the middle of its course, a small tunnel of difficult access connects with the gallery coming from the left entrance mouth (looking at them from the sea).
The rightmost mouth, of more modest dimensions, barely penetrates 3 m and from its interior a narrow underwater passage is born that leads to an air chamber about 2 metres in diameter.
The left mouth bifurcates 15 metres from the entrance: to the right it goes to the aforementioned connection with the central gallery and to the left it continues about 15 m closing in the so-called Sala dels Rat penats.
A dive in this room allows access to a narrow conduit about 25 m long that opens into the inner part of the Cova de les Vetes corresponding to the submerged mouth (point B on the survey), thus making real the union of the two cavities.
Cova de les Vetes: presents a fairly wide entrance with a high ceiling that allows the entry of kayaks. After a few metres the ceiling lowers and the continuation is underwater.
Once past the mouth (point D) one penetrates into a room about 35 m long (Sala de la Catedral) where the floor is at -20 metres remaining full of blocks and at the top there is an air bubble about 10 m high up to the ceiling.
Following the left wall we find a gallery that, although it begins with good dimensions (5X10 metres), quickly reduces to a passage of 3X2 metres, after which it recovers its original height; this gallery comes out again to the exterior through a totally submerged entrance (point F), located a very few metres south of the main entrance.
Returned again to the room, we continue along the left wall and find a new gallery, this one much smaller than the previous one (2X1 metre) at the beginning, decreasing until the end after 15 metres.
On the right wall of the room (level -15) is the start of a gallery of reduced dimensions and that after about 25 m of course communicates very close to the submerged mouth (mouth B) and to the gallery of union with the coves del Frare.
Progression
Care must be taken, since the movement of the fins produces a turbulence in the Sand that makes visibility quite difficult.
History
Caves known since long ago by the sailors of the area.
Puig y Larraz (1896), based on some unpublished data of P. Artigas, already mentions the Tres Coves and speaks of the colony of bats that is inside. From here they are already cited in all later catalogues.
The citations of the Cova de les Vetes are much later, although they were known from earlier times by the fishermen of the area. Pallarès (1981) makes a superficial citation and comments, with incredulity, that the fishermen say that it communicates under the water with the Coves del Frare. In the end the fishermen were right.
The oldest data of an underwater exploration that we know are from the dive carried out by Diego Ferrer (GEB) and Xavier Delgado (ECG) in August 1990, although they call it Cova del Salt del Pastor.
As our colleague Josep Guarro indicates to us, in the area of the Salt del Pastor there is no known cavity and the characteristics and description that they made in the dive of 1990 coincide fully with those that are known today of the Cova de les Vetes.
Recently (end of October 2025) the same Josep Guarro, while consulting old cartography of the IGN, observes that until the 2012 edition, the Punta de les Tres Coves appeared erroneously referenced as Alto del Salto del Pastor. Surely this data would have led to the confusion of the colleagues of the GEB in 1990.
The connection of les Vetes with Frare had long been known by divers of the area, but no one had ever documented it nor was it well known where they connected. The same happens with the connection between the east cave and the central one of Frare.
Finally, in the summer of 2025, a team formed by Josep Guarro, Hilari Moreno Jr. and Eduard Rovira, with the logistical support of the boat of the Parc Natural, dedicate different days of exploration to document and survey the whole system.
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Bibliography
Arbusé Bellapart, Narcís (2005).- El Montgrí pas a pas. 174 pp. Cossetània Edicions. Valls
Borràs, J.; Miñarro, JM.; Talavera, F. (1982).- Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (vol. 6): el Baix Empordà, el Gironès, la Selva, l'Osona, el Vallès Oriental i el Maresme: 290 pp. Ed. Políglota. Barcelona.
Ferrer Sánchez, Diego (GEB); Delgado Alberich, Xavier (ECG). (1991).-'Nota sobre algunes cavitats submarines existents entre l'Escala i l'Estartit (Alt i Baix Empordà)'. Cavernes (23):15-17. GE Badalona.
Pallarès-Personat, J. (1981).-'Recull espeleològic i visió topoclimàtica del massís del Montgrí'. Gours (8): 7-14. GEFOMA. Barcelona.
Talavera, F. (1981).-'Cavidades costeras del macizo del Montgrí'. Boletín Espeleológico SIEP (13): 33-38. SIEP-CE Poblet. Barcelona.
Valles, Jordi de (2010).- Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya. Volum 4. 397 pp. Espeleo Club de Gràcia / Federació Catalana d'Espeleologia. Barcelona.
Fotografia boques de les Tres Coves extreta del blog: espeleobloc.blogspot
Fotografia exterior boca Cova de les Vetes de Josep M. Victoria i foto interior boca, de Ropits, (caiacdemar.com).
Actualització de dades, topografia 2025 i fotografies submarines facilitades per Josep Guarro, Hilari Moreno Jr i Eduard Rovira (octubre 2025)
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Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/