The medieval village of Pals, one of the gems of the Empordà, has revealed a new perspective on its historical past. The research and historical investigation promoted by the Catalan Circle of History and the local Pals researcher, Mr Narcís Subirana, who have been working on it for more than five years, have shed light on one of the most debated questions regarding the possibility that Pals had a port in the modern era.
Indeed, as we shall see, the town of Pals also once had a seaside village with port activity documented until the 18th century, and there are further indications that its Pals-based fishing and maritime core, located on Pals Beach, survived until the early 20th century. A vanished settlement, of which archaeological remains still await study, devoted to the sea, fishing and export, just as other Catalan coastal settlements were, which, by contrast, are well documented. The study of the port of Pals could open the way to a much better understanding of the reality of the Catalan coast and, more generally, the maritime life of a country that has lived for many centuries facing the sea.
Very often, the search for history leads to astonishing discoveries we would never have believed possible, because our gaze is fixed on the present and on the familiar and everyday. But if we delve deeper beyond the current data available, we discover how an ancient medieval village, carved into the earth in stone among the rocks of Montaspre, had in the past also been a seafaring village with a harbour, fishing activity and ships.
The morphology of some areas of the Baix Empordà coast has changed markedly, especially over the past century, and this has meant that many things that were once at sea level are now set back inland. The coastline as it stands today has retreated by about 300 metres because of the sediments carried by the Ter and Daró rivers. This was also one of the factors behind the abandonment of fishing, which ultimately silted up and buried the port of Pals. This phenomenon of sedimentation was already studied over 70 years ago by the geologist and geographer Joan Carandell i Pericay and, later, published in the book Lower Empordà.1 The geologist Lluís Pallí i Buixó has also carried out numerous studies on the area. In his charts one can see the various times the mouth of the Ter shifted, even joining with the Daró, before ultimately carrying its waters to the Vernegar pond, beside the Basses d'en Coll in Pals. Lluís Pallí i Buxó and Carles Roqué i Pau produced the geological map of Pals in 1992,2 which helps to better visualise the sedimentation of the area. We must bear in mind that 500 years ago the sea's tidal line, on the side of the Pals and Begur term, reached as far as the Coves d'en Reig, where the minigolf car park now stands, and formed a large horseshoe-shaped bay or gulf, which Josep Pla had already referred to. A bay of fresh and salt water that, on days of heavy weather, extended much further inland and where the roar of the waves could be heard, as Pla himself mentions. Therefore, as we shall see, the evidence for the existence of the port of Pals presented in this work is not based on hypotheses or assumptions, but is the result of documentary and archival research and, above all, cross-disciplinary work with other disciplines, including geological and archaeological studies. All this information is what has allowed us to recover the knowledge about the historical past of “the seaside village of Pals”and of its port.
1 CARANDELL Pericay, Juan (1978). El Bajo Ampurdán, a geographical essay. Provincial Council of Girona.
2 PALLÍ i BUXÓ, Luís and ROQUÉ i PAU, Carles (1992). Geological map of Pals. Geological Unit of the University of Girona, Pals Town Council and the Girona: University and Future Foundation.
Rediscovering the Pals Port Area
The Torre Mora or Torre de Pals It is located about 300 meters from the coast in the middle of the pine forests, outside and to the west of the old Radio Liberty facilities. It has the same perimeter as the hour tower above the Gothic precinct, but about 3 or 4 meters less high. This tower and the archaeological remains that surround it are closely linked to the so-called "fishermen's shops" that are located within the perimeter of the land of the old Radio Liberty area. According to the first phase of the excavation, promoted by the Cercle Català d'Història in collaboration with the Culture area of the Pals City Council in May 2011, and pending the definitive archaeological results, it is confirmed that both the "shops" within the perimeter of Radio Liberty and the area of the Moorish tower would be part of the same site and population center.
The existence of this core of maritime population situated around what is known as Torre Mora or Torre de Pals, The archaeological remains, some visible and most still buried, correspond to the documentary information presented in this research. Therefore, we have a documented maritime historic core, the study of which already provides valuable information on the everyday life of Pals during the medieval and modern periods, but which, in our view, still requires further work.
The Moorish Tower is a prominent landmark that still rises among the pine woods and the beach dunes. In the past, fishermen used it as a reference point alongside the Pine of Fonollera. The tower was built with royal authorisation to defend the harbour. Around it, the fishermen's stone houses were also surrounded by a large number of canvas tents and rammed-earth huts on the dune sands for fishermen from outside the village who, for four months, came drawn by the great abundance of fish caught in the waters off the beach. The sardine banks were the best in the entire Principality, which is why fishermen travelled there during the summer with their entire families from Estartit, l'Escala, Roses, Cadaqués and even from Sant Llorenç de la Salanca in Roussillon. Previously, most of the farmhouses of the Masos de Pals and the fishermen's huts had someone in the family who was a fisherman.
The large quantities of fish caught in the seas off Pals were not only for the consumption of the town's inhabitants and neighbouring villages, but were also salted and exported. Ships from the port of Pals sailed to Italy, France and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula.
The large quantity of fish caught in the seas off Pals was not only for the consumption of the town's inhabitants and neighbouring villages, but was salted and exported. From the port of Pals ships sailed to Italy, France and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The municipality of Pals had one of the largest vineyards in the Baix Empordà, alongside Begur and Calonge. Such a large quantity of wine was also sold abroad, together with rice and linen fabrics. The quickest way to transport these products was by sea, as the roads of the Baix Empordà were almost impassable due to the marshes, and a large number of animals were needed to form a caravan and transport the number of tonnes a ship could carry.
Pals formerly had more than one port. The other port was located at the Large Mill, which was the property of the Pere family, royal notaries of Girona. Miquel Pere, undersigned, was the protonotary to King Ferdinand the Catholic, and the other members of his family held positions of the utmost confidence with the king. His name appears in the enfiteusis contract to make and build a rice mill where there are wheat mills on 9 September 1452, and Jaume Giner, the king's representative, is recorded as signatory in the presence of the following witnesses: Guillem Spital, noble; Nicholas Exerrat, merchant, and Peter Bartolomé Valls, lieutenant to the Bailiff General of Catalonia, in Barcelona on the aforementioned date.3 The conditions of the contract make it very clear that there is "the right to make interventions so that the water reaches the sea without obstacles and so that boats (barges and wooden boats) can access the sea to the mill.".
3 Writing of the Pals Mill. Regional Historical Archive of La Bisbal d'Empordà.
Palafrugell, Palamós and Vall d'Aro, scarce of water resources, in summer brought the grain to be ground at the mills, which had been operating since 15 March 1332 when the “Dance [Mayor] The Real Patrimonio granted an enfiteusis to Mr Juan Rejada.”, by diverting the water of the Old Stream, which was the water of the Salses Eugues, Fitor and Caramany streams, which, upon joining the Great Stream, was collected in the Marisc Pond of Pals. The regent of the General Bailiwick of Catalonia in 1492 “granted and conveyed a deed in the name of His Majesty”to build a canal in order to increase the volume of water that flowed from the Ter, through Gualta, to the mill. The vessels travelled along the other canal that ran from the mill to the sea. It is also known that the Basses d'en Coll or d'en Grau – the former mouth of the waters of the Riera Vella and the Daró before their diversion – served as a port for loading the pine resin stored at the Mas dels Arenals.
As we have said, the town had more than one port, although the official one was that of the Torre Mora or Torre de Mar, because it was the place where fishing and customs taxes were collected. It is also recorded that Feliu Busquets, a member of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and married to Teresa Caramany, and Rosa Riera, widow of Antoni Corredor, son of Pere Corredor of Mas Jofre and grandson of Julià Corredor of the Molí Gros (Molí Tafurer), owned a house in the port of Pals in the mid-eighteenth century. We also know that on 8 May 1616, the late Bartra Martinench is recorded.4 –artilleryman of the Tower of Mar–, who was a native of Six Forests, of the Kingdom of France. He had been in Catalonia for over forty years and had two sons and two daughters by various wives; his son Pere was the heir. Thanks to this information, we therefore know that in the sixteenth century the port was also defended by cannons and artillery.
Although it is true that in Pals at present there is almost no evidence of a seafaring tradition, that does not mean there was none in the past. The older residents of the village still remember how the sailors of Can Caixa, Can Pou de l'Espardenya and Can Anglada on going to America. Also searching through old documents5 dozens upon dozens of fishermen, sailors and ship captains are found, such as Domingo Girona; Josep Oliver i Mir, who married Rita Pou Huguet of Can Pou de les Garites on 28 May 1779; Antoni Bertran Martinench, a sailor from Pals who died on 3 November 1639; and Ramon Matas, a sailor who died in 1774. The stewards of the Pinell and Mas Gelabert were also ship captains. Francisco Trias is 97 years old and still remembers how, as a child, near the Tower of Pals, he would play with his friends Salvador Isern Jordà and Josep Pericay, searching for the rings where the ships were moored.
4 First Book of Burials. 1575–1750. Parish of Pals (Diocesan Archive of Girona).
5 Marriage Register 1–1703–1833. Parish of Pals (Diocesan Archive of Girona).
With the documentary emergence of the port of Pals, a village of Pals very different from the one known until now has re-emerged from oblivion, ignorance and concealment, with a seafaring tradition, movements of vessels from all over the world, a commercial sales point and a stopping-off place for boats, with a very rich and highly valued sandbar, according to the testimonies of fishermen from 1607, as the best sardine bar on the entire Catalan coast.
The documents proving this have been located in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (formerly the Royal Archive) in Barcelona. Some are more generous in pages than others, but that does not stop them from providing enriching information by revealing that the port of Pals – a port forgotten and denied on several occasions by very critical voices, both informed and uninformed – was active for at least several centuries: throughout the 15th, 17th and 18th centuries, with records of embarkations and disembarkations dating from the 13th century.
These are some of the proofs of its existence:
Royal Audiencia. Consulate of the Sea. Register of Maritime Protests. (1766 – 1868)6
In 1766, the consuls of the Royal Maritime Consulate of Barcelona ordered the opening of a register book for maritime protests. The entry recording the opening of the first book reads as follows: “First register of the maritime protests to be made by the captains and masters of ships and other vessels on account of the mishaps suffered during their voyages, drawn up by order of His Lordship, the Gentlemen… Consuls for His Majesty of this Royal Consulate. [4/1, fol.1r]. The protests take the form of notarial minutes authorised by the court clerk, who signs at the end of each one. Depending on the handwriting, they do not exceed 20–30 lines. In them, the captain or shipowner, after stating his identity, that of his vessel, the cargo, the port of departure and the intended route, declares that he has suffered some kind of mishap; on «suspicion,» as read in the first of the recorded protest entries, that said cargo [loading] He said that, having been damaged by the mishap he had encountered on his voyage, he wished to protest and did protest against the sea, the winds, the bad weather and all other matters against which it is lawful to protest, and that he wished to make and did make the present protest so that it might serve as evidence.”.
From 1766 until the Court of Commerce was abolished in 1868, 33 volumes of protest proceedings were compiled.
In the aforementioned register we find that on 24 September 1790 the declarant Bartholomé Copelo, captain of a Polacra vessel called Our Lady of Monte Negro, registered in Jerusalem with a cargo of wine, sailing the route Pals – Puerto Fino – Angay – Barcelona, and says the following:
“In the city of Barcelona, on the twenty-ninth day of September in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, personally appeared before this Royal Court of the Consulate of Commerce of this city and province Captain Bartholomé Copelo, commander of his polacra Gerosolimitana, named Our Lady of Monte Negro.”
“And I say that the ship being in good order, and equipped with everything necessary for navigation, she sailed from Pals on the twenty-second of July on a cargo voyage, and from said port to Puerto Fino. On the morning she was off Angay in France, she encountered a severe gale, Sea, rain and thunder in view of which, having made a sail, they took the port of Angay and succeeded, although many of the sails and part of the rigging were broken, in which port they did not give testimony. It arrived in this roadstead yesterday at midday and whilst at anchor, one of its gaffs was broken; having managed to save the anchor, it entered this port at dusk, where it was admitted to free practice yesterday. Meanwhile, its consignment will have been damaged owing to the mishap it has suffered on its voyage.”.
The protest will be followed by a lengthy formality.
Thus, in 1790 a ship sailed from the port of Pals carrying a cargo of wine, suffered damage and the ship's master lodged a complaint which – as the Commercial Court itself explains – has notarial validity, so that the cargo may be compensated under the insurance he was required to have taken out.
The discovery of the port of Pals during the eighteenth century is of great interest precisely because, as it is a process, it contains a wealth of complementary and enriching information that allows us to gain a more complete and coherent understanding of Pals' eighteenth-century fishing life and of the conflicts that sometimes arose around this fishing activity.
But the maritime and fishing activity in Pals is not new; Anna Maria Corredor had already documented it with data that, in our view, are very interesting. Her contributions already showed a significant activity in the life around the port of Pals when she reveals, for example, that: “[…]" In 1742 there are two lease deeds for the bakery and tavern: one is granted to Antoni Bou, a labourer from Pals, and the other to Francisco Casas, a merchant from Pals. In both it is stated that the tenant «shall have to keep said tavern stocked for four months, namely June, July, August and September in the beach, term and port of said town»”7 and more explicitly, in 1744, in another lease granted to the Pals sailor Raymundo Matas for the bakery and tavern, it stated the following:“During the four months of June, July, August and September of the present year, he shall sell on Pals beach good wine and refreshments at the same price as they are sold in the said town.”. Corredor also documents, through the notarial archive, a “ in 1717“Mariner's Portus Pals”His name is Joannis Ballesta.
If we return to the documentation relating to Pals, we have knowledge of specific individuals from this medieval village who lived in the Moorish Tower, also known as Torre de Mar, such as Maria Anna Bertrana,8 wife of Bartra Martinench, a fisherman who died in the same Torre de Mar on 15 September 1597 and had been a servant of Huguet del Bosch (Can Pou de ses Garites). We also have record of Bernat Artigas, a fisherman living in the “botigues” or “barraques” on the beach, who is found dead on 1 July 1715. But, in addition to the people specifically mentioned, there is a whole group of people connected with maritime activity. Thus, we have the shipwright Antoni Sadurní, who gives testimony during a pastoral visit9 made in the parish of Pals on 24 July 1420 to swear an oath in an interrogation that the priests of Pals are compliant with their parochial obligations, stating that they are honest men and that there is no irregular situation among the parishioners. We also have Francisco Dam, a chorister who married in Pals on 23 October 1787;10 the caulker Joan Borrat, married on 5 August 1791; the sea captain Domingo Girona, married on 4 August 1803; and Joan Mir, ship's captain and father of Joan Mir, also a sailor, married on 16 October 1809, to cite just a few examples. So far, twenty sailors born in the town and sixty fishermen, also from Pals, have been located.
6 ACA, Real Audiencia, C. Comercio, Vol. 4/4. 115r.
7 CORREDOR, ANNA MARIA (1998): Time of fishermen and merchants at Pals Beach, Studies of the Baix Empordà no. 17, p. 133.
8 First Book of Burials of the Parish of Pals. Diocesan Archive of Girona.
9 PUIG i ALEU, Imma: A Pastoral Visit to the Baix Empordà in the 1420s–1423s. Collection Estudis no. 34. Barcelona, 2006. Editorial Pagès Editors S.L. Fundació Noguera.
10 First Book of Marriages. Diocesan Archive of Girona.
PROCESS OF 1607: "Josephum Cerda mercatorem Gerundici against Prucuratorem Regium iurates Castri seu ville de Pals"«11
In this other proceeding, which concerns this fishing and maritime activity, several fishermen act as witnesses for the fisherman who brings the complaint, Joseph Cerda, merchant:
“Firstly, as our news has once again come to us, the jurats and procurator of the castle and term of Pals publicly forbid all fishermen who go to fish in the sea within the term of Pals from bringing their catch ashore and unloading it on the ground, on the grounds that they have a right to the wood from the mountain and the Gulf, and thus all the inhabitants of the town of Pals take wood for their own use. impri of said Bosch and mountain and fear that said mariners will not take said wood… to the notable damage and prejudice of the Royal Patrimony and especially of the Peix's share, which, being in that condition, no boat will go fishing; therefore, in order to prevent such damages, information will be taken against the said jurors and the attorney for the said Castle and term of Pals, and any other persons.”.
“The jurors and attorney do not want to allow fishermen from outside to fish, on pain of the justice of the said castle of Pals being invoked.”(fishermen from Calonge and Palamós are quoted, such as Joan Pi, Girona…)
The study of this process shows that the problem was triggered because some outside fisherman had taken wood from the forest and the bay that had been reserved for the townspeople. Moreover, the woods belonged to the king. This breach led the jurats of the town of Pals to require both the outside fishermen and those from Pals to pay a new tax that had never before been envisaged. If they did not pay, they were not allowed to fish, which prompted the fishermen to revolt, considering it illegal. This serious conflict would be the trigger for this legal process.
Thus, in the documentation we can see how the testimony of another fisherman tells us that: “Never before had the jurors been so reluctant to let them fish.”. Father Joan Illa i Caner is one of the jurors of Pals to whom the fishermen's witnesses go to speak, and who was strolling with his wife. Joan Illa i Caner tells them: “No one may fish in the sea of Pals unless they first pay.
Another fisherman comments that “By not allowing the jurors to fish in the said sea of Pals, they inflict great harm on the Lord King's fish tithing. A fisherman explains that they had come across fifteen or sixteen boats, and the jurors first wanted them to pay the tax before they could fish, so they came to see them.
Anthoni Galua, Joan Galua and Joan Fermia, all from Palamós, were made to pay 24 reals for each boat.”.
The emergence of the fishermen's voices and of the previously presented evidence shows that there was a productive fishery in the so-called Sea of Pals and that the shops to which the fishermen refer did not have the same meaning that we now attach to the word. shop, but they had owners, mostly from the village, and in some cases were leased by the owner, who rented them out during the summer months, which was the fishing season. This is already related to us by Anna Maria Corredor in her studies on fish and fishermen's tabes, and she also locates it in old documentation.12 Over the centuries, these shops served various purposes, but they were used to salt fish and prepare the barrels that were later exported by sea:
“[…] The sardine fishery operated two boats in the sea off Pals, and many barrels of sardines were taken from that sea off Pals, as well as many thousands of herrings.”.
We have the testimony of Montserratus Simon Piscator, town of Palamós, which says:
“The first year I went fishing at Joan Cardona's Serdinals Bar, the second year at Merge's Serdinals Bar in Palamós, and this year in the sea off Pals, and we even fear that this impediment (to fishing) is very real and that we come here very willingly because We reckon this fishing off Pals is the best for sardines along the entire coast…”, A fact that is undoubtedly interesting, unknown to the town itself but, it seems, much appreciated by local and visiting fishermen.
11 ACA. Real Patrimonio, BGC, Processes 1607, no. 2C.
12 CORREDOR, Anna Maria. “Time of Fisher-Traders on Pals Beach in the 18th Century”. Institute of Studies of the Baix Empordà, vol. 17, pp. 127–150.
Another fisherman also speaks of the problems with fishing in the sea off Pals, beginning his statement by saying:“My occupation is that of a fisherman, and I fish for sardines in the sea off Pals, paying for the sardines ashore to dry them and also bringing the sardines and sprats ashore to the huts, making them into herrings, and never have the jurats of the town of Pals or anyone else on honour told me that I could not fish or asked me for any right except the tithe, which belongs to the Lord. I have always paid it to Antoni Huguet, who is the bailiff of Sach.”. Another fisherman says that with all this problem now imposed by the jurats of the town of Pals, forcing fishermen to pay a new tax on top of the tithe of their catch, it has caused outsiders to be afraid to come and others even to have experienced episodes of violence at the hands of the town's jurats. Another fisherman experiencing this confrontation with the jurats says:
“[…] No fisherman will want to come to fish in the sea of Pals. When I was by the shops at the sea of Pals, the jurats of the said castle of Pals came with such fury: Mr Barthomeu Maria – Notary, Fabra, Mr. Maferrer, notary of the aforementioned town of La Bisbal, who is judge of the said Castle of Pals, so that no fisherman would come to fish or take shelter, and with great fury they all came together to my boat, which I had on the shore, and they wanted to ensnare me because I had wished to take shelter while ashore; Antoni Huguet, Bailiff of Sach, was also there.”.
It appears from the documentation that Mr Antoni Huguet was also bailiff of Pals Castle, and thanks to this fact we learn of a new toponym in the Pals Beach area, previously unknown:
“N'Antoni Huguet, who at that time was Procurator of the aforementioned castle of Pals, entered the sea in the area of The Fountain of the Palms who is from the town of Pals and enters the bar with Gabriel Rotllan, a fisherman from Calonge…”
Another fisherman also comments: “The procurator of the aforementioned castle of Pals came to the sea and publicly declared there that those of us without a licence could not fish… In the said sea of Pals, in order to fish for sardines there, and while on land on the beach at the foot of the shops of the said Castle of Pals, Joan Illa y Caner, who at that time was a juror, came there in the company of Moret del Rocar, treasurer and procurator of the said Castle of Pals.”.
The king – who at that time was Philip II of Aragon – also owned a shop in the port of Pals, probably leased: “[…]" of Mr Rei of the aforementioned castle of Pals, whose shop is in the port of the said sea of Pals…”.
The protection of the port of Pals, as with all ports, was fundamental, and the process clarifies how taxes were levied for the port's defensive armament:
“[…] The licences granted to foreign fishermen on the understanding that they serve the town's benefit by supplying gunpowder and munitions for a tower that stands on the sea (facing the sea), and the tithes that the King receives from the fish in said sea…”. The documents of the Crown of Aragon also explicitly state the following: “[…]' Let no one dare to fish in the Grau that lies within the boundary of Pals Castle without the licence of the said Grau's tenant. […] because said villa is the establishment of the Lord King and of the said degree”.
The question that all those interested in the subject had, regarding the shape of this port or obtaining more details of its location, is clarified by the description provided in the documents of the Archive of the Crown of Aragon and by our studies on the port of Pals using ancient cartography, where the original morphology of the Pals beach area, where the port of Pals was located, appears clearly. We now know that there were several areas of lakes and lagoons, and also that during past centuries two tributaries of the rivers Ter and Daró existed, both of which emptied into this gulf or large lagoon of Pals (as indicated by figure 1 of the map from the Catalan Cartographic Institute), with the seafaring nucleus of the Torre de Pals very clearly present. We also know that there was more than one harbour, and that the official one was the one situated by the Tower of Pals or Tower Mora, the place where taxes appear to have been collected, and that the spot with the greatest abundance of fish was the area of the sluice, where the waters of the two streams converged. This is shown by the 1605 proceedings: “[…] And by order of the Royal Procurator, at the instance of the gentlemen jurors of the said term of the castle of Pals, that no outsider dare cut wood in the commons of the term of the said castle of Pals in the stretch of the said town of Pals where the sea meets fresh water with land, until it joins the sea and the sea's fish enter and already in that stretch through the bar, and that stretch enters inland and they make a large circuit in the form of a pond, into which the waters of the Rech of the Mill of Señor Taffurer and of the Rech of Coll converge.”.
The shape of the Pals coast also reveals the large horseshoe-shaped bay, or golf, noted by fishermen as the result of the confluence between the Pals lagoon and the sea—a bay that once extended inland, as shown by the local cartography and the historical accounts of Josep Pla.
As we can see, over the centuries not everything remains immutable. The landscape and conditions change, and it is essential to take everything into account when drawing conclusions. As we noted at the outset, Pals Beach is now straight because the deposits carried by the Ter since the 13th century exceed one million cubic metres, owing to the various diversions of the Ter and the Daró. All of this has been the cause of the geomorphological change. We wish to recall the geologist Carandell i Pericay when he tells us in his book Lower Empordà that “Torroella was a port during Roman rule and is now more than 5 km from the sea. Since 1300, the sea that surrounded the Fonollera promontory has receded by almost two kilometres, and the north and northeast winds have been shaping the dunes along Pals beach that we know and admire today.”The eminent geologist, who went to live in Andalusia, with an extensive scientific output almost entirely devoted to that region, felt a great affection for the Empordà. In fact, Lower Empordà It is the only work published posthumously before death took him by surprise at Pals while he was visiting his maternal family. References to these landscapes can also be found in Pella i Forgas's work in his magnificent… History of Empordà,13 in which he transcribes documents that demonstrate how, around the year 1302, Count Ponç Hug of Empúries diverted the course of the Ter to Verges.
The landscape we now behold is not the same as it was in earlier centuries, but that does not mean that the old royal town of Pals lacked a seafaring tradition, as its neighbouring towns of Torroella de Montgrí and Begur did, or still do. Where there are now rice paddies and pine trees, there were once vineyards and water. Carandell also tells us in his book of a landscape not so distant in time but nonetheless a remnant of what it once was, and thus he specifies: “Due to the configuration of the coast, there is an abundance of sardines and all kinds of fish of the same family that appreciate two things: the shallow depth of the waters and the abundance of organic debris that fosters lush underwater vegetation. This is what happens at the mouth of the Ter, a nursery of exceptionally rich fish life, with an abundance of mullets, sea bass and all kinds of fish that love the mixture of fresh and salt water.”.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, when the geologist recorded his observations, the same scene still prevailed that, a few centuries earlier, the fishermen in the 1605 account had also highlighted the richness and abundance of the fish.
The old road to the port left the village of Pals, passed along the stream of Caramany or Quermany, continued through the middle of Mas Tomasí and a few metres below. Can Pou de l'Espardenya It ran towards Riells, passing behind the Aparhotel up to Torre Mora. It wasn't just any old path.
The oldest documents certify that it was the main road, that is, the one with the highest level of security for travellers, passers-by and goods. As it was protected by the laws of the Principality of Catalonia (robbers on the royal road were condemned to the galleys), the punishment was so severe that some people preferred death rather than serve it. This road was four metres wide and allowed carts to pass in both directions. The road was protected or marked by stone walls or ramparts, with some sections one and a half metres high, remains of which still survive. The people of Pals continued to use it until 1932, when a new one was built. In 1956, when the Americans built the Radio Liberty transmitter, it was tarmacked, and it was thanks to the Americans that, by choosing this little corner to build the most powerful broadcasting centre in the world, they preserved the site (although in levelling the ground they buried some archaeological remains) and also rebuilt some of the old fishermen's houses.
The latest documentary discovery certifying the existence of the port of Pals is the oldest and has generated the greatest excitement because it dates from the 15th century, a century rife with upheaval and acts of war in the Empordà region, with events still little known and studied.
This discovery is of great importance to the history of the ancient royal town of Pals. It is a sigillographic seal of the Court of the Bailiff's Court of Pals Castle, found in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona.14 The reproduction of the sigillographic seal is included in the book by the eminent Ferran de Sagarra i de Síscar in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (Barcelona). The seal bears a shield with three bars, the royal bars, and provides valuable information for research. It is a round shield measuring 40 mm with the legend “+ S DE LA CORT DEL CASTELL DE PALS [seal of the Court of the Castle of Pals]”. Impressed on paper and in red wax, it accompanies a letter of authorisation in manuscript script granted by “En Joan Abril, batlle of Pals, to Antoni Vinyals, boatman from Palamós, for having loaded a sack of flour in the port of Pals, which he is to unload in Barcelona.".
Dated at the castle of Pals, on 29 July 1406., sealed with the seal of our court.”
13 PELLA I FORGAS, José. 2007. Editorial Maxtor.
The Port of Pals Emerges from Oblivion
Information from primary sources is undoubtedly invaluable, but it is not the only source of information for bringing the port of Pals out of oblivion, since there are also other references that mention this port and make clear the importance it must have had, probably on a par with other, much better-known ports, as we shall see.
In a compilation of documents referring to maritime orders, insurance contracts, charters, enrolments and various other records covering the period from 1213 to 1412 of vessels departing Barcelona for other international and national destinations, the port of Pals appears documented as mentioned in a book.15 with the following comment: “[…] In the first half of the thirteenth century the international interests emanating from the plaza of Barcelona vary […] with smaller proportions, journeys to Majorca and Minorca, the Valencian coast – Valencia, Alicante and Murcia – Italian centres – Genoa and Venice – and Catalan ports – Collioure, Roses, Pals, Tarragona, Tortosa–”.
On the other hand, we also have news of the capture and sale of Saracens who were shipwrecked in their galley off Pals in a storm.16 The event took place in 1422, and this historical account gives us an insight into how captives were sold and acquired in the town of Pals to be turned into slaves, a common practice in those centuries which, at times, we struggle to understand when viewed from a modern perspective. The information comes from the accounts of the sale of 123 Saracens from that galley which was wrecked off Pals in a storm, the Liber Venditionum Sarracenorum Galeote, who was shipwrecked off Pals during the time of John Scuderius.
Among the various names that appear are Joanis Scudery or Joan Escuder, but also Joan Ros de Canapodio, Pere Ferrer, Bartolomeu Comelles (Abbadinery gerunde), among many other names, and the toponymy also appears.“Castle of Pals”and“Pals Montis”.
Undoubtedly, all this information enriches the recovery of Pals's local history and represents another step towards deepening our historical understanding of a part of the Empordà region and the Girona comarques. With the port of Pals, we have rescued from obscurity the maritime side of a town that did not know it had one. Also, from a legal and juridical standpoint, this confirms that the town had a royal court with a full legal capacity, as befits a royal town, with notaries, procurators, representation at courts, a bailiff, and many other legal aspects represented in the town, all of which will require further study. By contrast, the massive disappearance of all documentation relating to the port of Pals is indeed surprising, as are the documents concerning its activities—such as customs, insurance, the enrolment register, the exchange office… A whole series of elements and a vast amount of documentation that must have existed and which, by contrast, has at first glance vanished from the archives, volatilised into oblivion!
After the documentation studied, Everything suggests that in the early 19th century the large quantities of water carried by the Ter and Daró rivers, aided by the tramuntana wind and the swell, definitively buried the horseshoe-shaped harbour, and that Pals's fishing activity had already been abandoned or, at the very least, reduced to a purely residual role. Also, in the late 19th century, phylloxera destroyed the vineyards and pines were planted instead of vines to halt the advance of the Pals dunes.
Now the port of Pals will be less unknown. We have seen that it is clearly referenced in various contemporary works and has been documented since the 13th century as a landing stage, and by the 15th, 17th and 18th centuries it was already legally and juridically defined as a port.
With the documentary discovery concerning the Port of Pals, we would like to draw attention to the difficulty of locating in the archives more extensive primary documents relating to the Port of Pals' port infrastructure, unlike some other ports on the Catalan coast.
But it is indisputable that we have major documentary gaps in general concerning the Catalan maritime sphere. We do not know whether this fact highlights the great historical ignorance of the maritime sphere in a country that has been devoted to the sea, navigation and maritime expansion for centuries, such as Catalonia, a country with maritime law that was imitated by other nations around the world and of which there is indeed evidence in European archives. The rediscovered port of Pals is an example and proof of the need to dedicate efforts to deepening the study of Catalan maritime history and, ultimately, to better understand the true role of Catalonia, of its merchant and military navy throughout the centuries in our country, of the functioning of its ports and of its legal and commercial relationship with the other nations of the world.
14 Here it is. Collection Sig. I/213.
15 CUADRADA, Coral (2001). The Mediterranean, a crossroads of merchants (13th–15th centuries). Bofarull Collection, no. 5. Rafael Dalmau, editor.
16 ACA, Real Patrimonio, BGC, no. 2,259.
Demand urgent protection for this area.
We need your support to protect and prevent the degradation of the archaeological heritage of Pals Beach.
If this information has been forwarded to you and you like it, subscribe here.
Article written by Eva Sans and Narcís Subirana. Published in Annals of the Girona Institute of Studies. Vol. LIV, 2013, pp. 391–408
Photographs by Eva Sans and Narcís Subirana.
Article creation date: 3/2/2021.
Català
Español
English (UK)
Français