Vilabertran

Señora Rosa has been helping us with our meat selection at the Intermarche supermarket for the last couple of years, I tell her what I want to cook (which is whatever Carol wants to eat basically) and she advises me on the cut of meat (labelled in Catalan) best suited for our needs. It was during one such a conference that Rosa told us of the impending Fiesta Mayor to be held at the village of Vilabertran, just outside of Figueres.

Vilerbertran is famous for its 11^th. century church -Santa Maria de Vilabertran which features a Lombardian bell tower; originally an Augustinian church, the town was founded here because of the availability of fresh water and proximity to the trade route that is the Mediterranean sea.

Fira L´Horta y Poma Relleno

So it was that on the 20^th. September 2009 we visited the village and experienced the celebration of village life; which is known as Fira L´Horta y Poma Relleno ( Fair of the Farm and stuffed Apple).

This is harvest time in L´Alt Emporda and the fields are filled with young African men, many of whom were illegal immigrants, and who today form a large part of the hard working agricultural labour force.

Sìnia

The Sìnia is an ancient form of well using an Archimedes screw mechanism powered by horse or donkey and was brought to the L´Alt Emporda by the Greeks who settled the area; the name L´Alt Emporda is derived from the greek for market place.

The horse powering this sìnia seemed a bit skitterish and was not easily held by the handler who explained that he was upset at drawing the short straw whilst his stable mates pulled carts around the village as they taxied the visitors to the village centre.

A few examples of the sìnia have been restored and are preserved on the old horta's of VilaBertran, hortas which are still actively farmed and produce high quality fruit & vegetable crops.

Pualanca

Another Greek introduction was the Pualanca a lever mechanism with counter balance to raise water from the well.

The village people (no not them) rather the people of the village enthusiastically demonstrated the water extraction techniques for each new arrival at the show.

Carol was invited to try the Paulanca and was 'well impressed' (pun so obviously intended) with its efficiency though she seemed a little disappointed to learn that modern day pumps lift the water nowadays.

Horta exhibition

The Hortas were immaculately presented and despite the dry hot windy summer exhibition standards were presented by all concerned with the land cultivation. The route around the village was well signposted. I was particularly impressed with the attitude of the people of the village everyone tried to be helpful and they all smiled. Thoughtfully there were albums of photographs showing the seasonal crop production which occur outside of the Fiesta period, were exhibited alongside historic photographs of village life. A young African man was only too pleased to show us photographs of he and his colleagues at work in the plant nurseries of the village.