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In an area very rich in megaliths, Romanyà de la Selva, in the Baix Empordà, we find in the deepest part of a thick forest of cork oaks (the “corks”) this curious formation or granite shelter that I have photographed for the Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia.
Known as Pedres Grosses, it is part of the Ruta dels Gegants del Bosc de Santa Cristina d’Aro. It is believed that it could have served as a shelter or burial site in Neolithic times. This statement is deduced from the fact that remains of ceramics or small utensils have been found in the land on which it sits.
Little more information exists because little else is known. This granite shelter is also known as a paradolmen, which is a cavity between rock blocks used as a burial chamber, fitted with walls or slabs to close it.
The population of Romanyà is inserted in the middle of the massif of the Gavarres marítimas. As for the megalithic complexes, we also find one of the best-preserved funerary complexes (dolmen) in the Empordà, made up of the Cova d’en Daina, the Dolmen del Roquet, the Cista d’en Güitó, the Menhir de la Murtra and the Cista on the Carretera de Calonge.
The paradolmen, unlike the dolmen, is not strictly a human construction, but natural cavities, such as erratic blocks or the morphology of the already existing terrain, are used to build them, although in some cases human intervention has modified their final structure.
