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One of the ideal places to take refuge from the summer heat and seek the coolness of the shade of the trees is the impressive spot of the Fageda d’en Jordà, as these photographs show in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
This beech forest that belongs to the Natural Park of the Volcanic Zone of La Garrotxa, is an incredible place to go for a walk. It extends through the towns of Olot, Santa Pau and Les Preses.
La Fageda d’en Jordà is a nature reserve that includes a beech forest with unique characteristics in Spain, since it grows on a relatively flat terrain, formed by a cooled lava flow from the Croscat volcano, at an altitude that is not common in the Iberian Peninsula for this type of tree, between 550 and 650 meters.
It has an extension of about 4.8 km2 and is full of prominences typical of lava that can reach more than 20 meters in height, with the local name of tossols.
The beech forest is also famous because the poet Joan Maragall wrote a well-known poem in its honor (La fageda d’en Jordà). At the main entrance to the beech forest, at km 4 of the road from Olot to Santa Pau, where the Can Serra car park is located, there is a monolith in his honor.
Inside the forest, the use of motorized vehicles is prohibited, however, there are several routes on foot and you can rent a horse or an old horse-drawn carriage at km 7 of the road from Olot to Santa Pau.
