Les Borges del Camp: Fireworks and Modernism

Borges del Camp is a town some 2200 inhabitants situated strategically at the foot of the mountain range of Mussara, and opens up to the plains of Tarragona and the beach. It is natural way to arrive to the Priorat and the mountains of Prades and is located 15 minutes from the beaches of Salou. It has good comunications with main towns in Costa Dorada (Reus Salou, Cambrils, Tarragona, la Pineda Playa) and celebrates a festival of ancestral character and Modernism is represented in its singular chapel.

Where we are:

• Les Borges del Camp
• Population: 2114
• Cordinates:

- Latitude 41.169657
- Longitude 1.019709

• Local festivals:

- San Antonio the third Saturday in January
- Capvuitada: in June, 8 days after Corpus
- Virgen de la Riera: September 8, but the main event is l'Arribada Sept. 7 hours

• Typical products:

- Coca recapte
- Extra virgin olive oil DOP Siurana


Gastronomy

Borges del Camp available an excellent “coca en recapte” with different varieties and sizes, you would buy in the bakeries. Those establishments are famous by the quality of their cakes and the bread, especially “pa de pagés”, and another products like pastries.

If you visit Borges del Camp don’t forget to visit the Cooperative and taste the excellent oil extra virgin DOP Siurana. Also you can buy  the most famous wines of DOQ Priorat, DO Montsant and DO Tarragona, and another handmade products like jams or hazelnut.

Fresh or cured “Llonganissa” is another delicious and typical product of Borges del Camp and you can taste in the restaurants and buy in the butcheries of the village.

Modernism

Borges del Camp is the only village in the Costa Dorada that has to a modernist chapel. Dedicated to the patron  “Virgen de la Riera”, is built on the old chapel dedicated to St. Bartholomew, patron of the old village, in the twelfth century. It lies 800 meters located west of the village and is building in the beginning of twentieth century (1903-1904) by the architect Francesc Berenguer i Mestre, one of the more direct collaborators of Antoni Gaudí,greatest exponent of Modernism. The executors of Magdalena Martorell, benefactor of the village, payed the chapel. During the Spanish Civil War, the chapel was converted into arsenal that was destroyed in part. In 1954 it was rebuilt.

The chapel holds the sculpture Romanesque polychrome wood of 90 cm, dated the thirteenth century, that the star of the Fiesta Mayor Les Borges del Camp held in honor of the Virgen de la Riera, 8 September. The more emblematic act is the Arrival (l’Arribada), which it was declared in 2010 Traditional Fiesta of National Interest by the Generalitat de Cataluña.

Traditional fiesta: the struggle between good and evil

The Arrival consists in a mass pilgrimage from the village up to the modernist chapel with borgenses and other people come from the cities of Costa Dorada, at 21.30 hours on September 7. When the pilgrimage turns back to the village, the Diables precede the procession and fire their "carretillas" as a symbolic fight between good and evil. The fire, the firecrackers, the smell fishy fulls the air and wants to avoid the Arrival of the image to church of Assumpta.

Finally, the Mare de Déu de la Riera achieves to come in the church and "wins", and people and Diables worship the image.

The Diables are one of the most characteristics parts of Arrival, since it is the most ancient preserved the stainless Ball de Diables, and exponent is the highest in the area. Participation of the regular Ball de Diables in this act the Fiesta Mayor Les Borges del Camp has constancy from 1880, but its existence predates. All of these characteristics of Ball de Diables got it designate Festive Heritage National Interest in 2010.

The flowers carpet

The Other typical fiesta de les Borges del Camp is the Capvuitada, that also have to more than 200 years of history in June 8 days after Corpus. In this case the singularity is the tradition of decorating the streets by where the procession passes with artisan carpets made with flowers and other materials, and on the balconies of buried robes greet for the welcome the procession of Saint Sacrament.

The origin is in 1796 stood when a strong hailstorm destroyed the harvest of Borges del Camp. This repeated during 5 consecutive years, until the 29th of July 1800 when was the worse hailstorm and all of harvest was ruined and the vines, olive trees, fruit trees and others vegetables in the town.

The wrong was so serious that heads of households met and, after some discussion, the only solution they were able to find was the entrusting everything to God, and so it was decided unanimously vote party Capvuitada, which began to be held next year, in 1801, to impose divine protection to the town against hailstorms. Since then, every year, on Thursday the Octave of Corpus, a procession through the streets adorned with carpets of flowers is held, and since then hasn't fallen back any severe hailstorm in Borges del Camp.

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