Cova dels Plans de l'hostal

Known since time immemorial. Catalogued by members of the ECM Barcelonès in October 2019.

(Note from Espeleoíndex): From an excursion carried out by Cels Gomis in 1881 and about which he wrote an article the following year, there is no doubt that the cova dels Plans de l'Hostal is the one he cites as Cova de les Gralles.

Gomis, Cels (1882).- “Un passeig per las Garrigas”. Butlletí de l'Associació d'Excursions Catalanes Any V (42-43): 43-53. Here it says verbatim:

Poch més avall de las Bessas y en la vora esquerra del riu Set hi ha una bauma coneguda ab lo nom de Cova de las Grallas. Lo 23 de Septembre de 1874 moríren ofegats dins de aquesta cova vint y tants carlins de la partida d'En Baró que s'hi havían soplujat. Aquell dia las ayguas del Set arribáren á tenir devant del Molí Vell de Manresa, á Cerviá, una altura de 5,60 damunt de son llit, ocupant una secció transversal de 285 metres quadrats.(sic)

This citation is collected by Puig y Larraz in his work Cavernas y simas de España (1896) and was later included in the catalogues of Font i Sagué (1897) and Faura i Sans (1909).

Recently Joan Ramon Segura, doing research on the cova de les Gralles or dels Carlins, in his blog includes a map from 1920 made by the surveyor Fernando Presas on which he locates the cova de les Gralles at the place where the cova dels Plans de l'Hostal is found. On this map the cova del Pobre is also located, which would coincide with the one currently cited as cova de les Gralles no. 5.