Balma dels Foresos

The present farmhouse is still habitable and has bastions at the front and at the back; the date carved on the keystone of the main doorway is 1801. Beneath the present house there had existed the old Mas de la Cova, which was a rock-shelter farmhouse, since it used a large rock shelter as the rear part of the dwelling. The holes where the wooden cairons that must have supported the roof of the old farmhouse were set can still be seen.

Speleologically, the first report of this cavity is provided by Juan Abad, who published it in 1973 in the Comunicacions del III Simpòsium d'Espeleologia held in Mataró. However, we think he gets confused with the name, both of the cave and of the rock shelter, probably due to the limited cartography existing in the area at that time, since he comes to call it Cova de la Balma de la Cova, locating it in a place called la Cova and 50 metres from the Pla de Cogullas. In reality, the Pla de Cogullades (Vinaixa), since this is the correct name, and la Cova (Vallclara) are two toponyms that exist; moreover, at this point there is indeed a cave that has nothing to do with either the cave or the balma dels Foresos (Vimbodí i Poblet), which is 1.3 kilometres away to the East at the Mas dels Foresos, also known as Mas de la Cova, which already appears documented in the 19th century.

It is also conducive to confusion that it is located in the municipality of Vallclara, when in reality it belongs to the municipality of Vimbodí i Poblet, whereas the place known as la Cova does belong to Vallclara.