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VERDAGUER ROUTE

JACINT VERDAGUER I SANTALÓ
(poet and walker)

Introduction

Verdaguer and the image of the mountain
by Francesc Roma i Casanovas

Undoubtedly, Jacint Verdaguer can be found among the most important walkers in our country, although his religious, Conservative and coarse image that our days have imagined for him.
He truly was not a great sportsman. But, in remembering some of his walkings, he was much more active than most of the members of several mountain clubs. Verdaguer became a member of the Associació Catalanista d'Excursions Científiques, that later on became the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya, in 1878, two years after its foundation. During his mountaineering experience, Verdaguer climbed, before several others, the peaks of the Canigó, Puigmal, Carlit, Montsent de Pallars, Montardo, Montcalm, Pica d'Estats, Maladeta... some of the highest Catalan mountains. In a sport sense, Verdaguer followed two other ecclesiastic figures: Norbert Font i Sagué (1874-1910), who mainly explored the subsoil; and Jaume Oliveres (1877-1957), who dedicated his sports life to climb the highest mountains. Their ecclesiastical professions did not separate them from their sports dedication.

Even if Verdaguer was a great walker, he cannot be considered a pioneer in this field. His walks had a more scientific environment, but not in the sense of being a kind of climbing men under the orders of science men, according to Jordi Martí. Verdaguer's thought was similar to Norbert Font's way of thinking. Verdaguer is someone who needs the contact with the natural world in order to express what he feels through poetry. If anyone sees him as a scientific man is because that he is seen not just as a walker but as a mountain man.

Climbing was not well seen
Verdaguer is a writer attached to the Romanticism. For him, even the ruins talk after its death. He felt the mountain he was going through and that he loved the most. Moreover, according to Josep Iglésies, he knew the Pyrenees better than all the walkers in Barcelona of this time.

He had a really concise image of what surrounded him. He was much more interested in the human reality than for the natural world. The first walkers did not understand neither admire climbing mountains. Verdaguer exemplifies it when, in August 1883, he writes in his travel notebook that, from the top of the Montcalm: "It is a sad show: white rocks wound the sightseeing everywhere, speckled with even whiter marks; some ponds in the sides of the crests (...)". This adjective, sad, will be used by several other walkers to qualify several mountain places, even by the end of the 19th century, as Francesc Maspons i Labrós (1840-1901), president of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya, did.

From the top of the Sotlo, in the left side of the Montcalm, on the right. From left to right: Pic Verdaguer (3131 m), Pica d'Estats (3143 m) and Punta Gabarró (3115 m)

From the top of the Montcalm, Verdaguer watched the mountain crests of the Pallars, L'Arieja, La Cerdanya, the Cadí and the Canigó. And even though he had gone there several times, he still describe them as sad, a kind of sadness that is produced because of the lack of vegetation. This cause can clearly be seen when, while climbing in the Circ de Pessons (Andorra), Verdaguer wrote: "Cabalment las serras del voltant no ensènyan al viatger més que tarters, més sechs y tristos que'ls de la vall, puig en esta hi ha alguns pins, molts talabarts y algun clap de gleba ab què cubreixen sa nuesa les pedres balirenques, que allí tenen, sens dubte, sa més abundant pedrera, puig tot allò és granítich, com allí té origen lo Balira" .

Verdaguer was one of the first important people in Catalonia to walk in a green and humid Pyrenees and who were able to admire it. But he also was a little bit "confused" when he was in front high peaks, a kind of nowadays confusion. Mossèn Cinto, once in the privacy of his notebooks, preferred the riversides full of trees and the wheat fields of the Pyrenean valleys instead of the tops of the mountains. When he went down from La Seu d'Urgell to Organyà, he wrote:

"Verament los rius embelleixen sobre manera los païssos; eixas montanyas, nues en gran part, rocosas y calcàreas, reben del Segre una alenada de vida que las engallardeix, y, ab la faixa de verdor que estén lo riu aurífer a sos peus, són tota una altra cosa" .

His love for the cultivated fields can also be seen in a description of La Cerdanya:
"Veig aquexa hermosa plana de Cerdanya per tercera o quarta vegada, y may no m'havia semblat tan bella com avuy, que la he contemplada a la llum del sol, que s'enfonsa tristament derrera la montanya de Maranges. Los segadors estan en la fogarada del seu penós treball. ¡Que n'han feta, de feyna! (...) Lo sol, que's pon en un cel serè com uns ulls de doze anys, abaxa ses derreres llums a la encantadora plana, y la rossor dels blats creix y's daura y sobredaura ab la rossor de sos raigs (...)" .

Verdaguer and his discovery of the landscape
Of rural origins, Verdaguer, like most of the first walkers, admired the land that was able to give fruits and loved those who have it as its profession. But, in the last quarter of the 19th century, when Verdaguer made most of his travels in mountain regions, there was a great pression in the Catalan forests and natural areas. The disappearance of the forest and the emergence of a new tecnology was the most important in the history of Catalonia. In this context, for most of the people of our country -rural and urban- what produced something was really delightful, especially if, like in agriculture, the fruits come from where there was nothing -mountains, forests, desert land, etc. In the middle of everything, some Catalan walkers were the first to claim for a more accurate management of the environment and for a protection of the forest areas. Among them, there can be found Jacint Verdaguer who, in the summer of 1883, while talking about the Cadí, clearly expresses his love for the forests:

"Tota la serra és de pedra de cals, que'ls temporals y plujas van desfent y arrossegant a las valls. La vegetació, en alguns punts, sempre és estada nul·la; en altras ha sigut exterminada sense pietat per la codícia del gobern, la major part, o dels propietaris, que, per fer quatre sous, han deixat fer en sos boscos una tallada que serà la darrera, puig hi han deixada la terra nua, que l'aygua va escorxant y portant-se'n rost avall, deixant veure despullats los ossos de la serra. No solament llévan aixís la riquesa a nostre desgobernat país, sinó l'esperansa de tornar-la a tenir, la bellesa y atractiu, convertint un paradís en un areny, d'ahont los habitants ja van fugint, per no poder-s'hi guanyar la vida. Los que això càusan o això permeten són mereixedors del nom de lladres y homicidas, si ningú ho és" .

The sandy land became non-productive as well as unpleasant because of the lack of beauty and attractiveness; it cannot be a part of the landscape as a kind of relationship with the natural world in which it is seen as something beautiful, pleasant, etc. For Verdaguer, the richness and the beauty of a mountain disappears in a deforested mountain, and that's why there are some measures that must be adopted quickly (he did not especify which are these measures). In this popular discussion, some authors demanded a forestal repoblation; others, the creation of protected areas; others walked all over the country in order to climb every mountain... All of them gave a positive value to what, since then, was disdained and destroyed. And in this love process for mountaineering, Verdaguer became an important model to follow because, through his literature, he acted unconsciously over his contemporaries' desires. In this sense, when he gave popularity to the image of the Catalan mountain established in the Jocs Florals, he became a connection between the poorest social classes and the intellectuals. Through Verdaguer's poetry and the stimulus it represents for the real discovery of the evocated places, a lot of people could know the reality of the mountains of Catalonia. This can clearly be seen in the last years of his life, especially after his break with the Güell family and his confinement in Vic. His "own defense" made him well-known all over Catalonia as could well be seen in his death. From then on, a lot of Catalan people, even though they did not read his poetry, knew that there were some places called Canigó, Montserrat, Montseny, etc. And this influenced the next generations, less linked to the old mountaineering model, to discover them in situ. In fact, Verdaguer's death coincided with the most important turn-over that our mountaineering has suffered since before the Civil war: the big opening to the mountain and to the natural world. Since then, mountaineering was just something for folklorists, historians, artists and intellectuals in general.

Formalizing our look
Josep Iglésies wrote that a lot of people went to the Canigó because of the reading of Mossèn Cinto's poem. In a similar way, nowadays we know that Verdaguer elaborated some of the images that has decodificated nowadays mountaineering in the 20th century. He was not the only one, but he was the most important one. In 1892, Josep Aladern says that the landscape that can be found in the surroundings of Coll de Narcó were "like William Tell's decoration", what is the same, like a theatre play which decorates had inspired the mural paintings in the Liceu after its reconstruction after the big fire that destroyed it in 1861 (this painting was made by Joan Vicens i Cots, theatrical designer and drawing teacher in La Llotja). In the same sense, when Aladern arrives to La Seu d'Urgell and its surroundings look pintoresque for him, his own vision made him remind Verdaguer's Canigó: so Verdaguer gave him a model of the geography in order to be able to interprete the place.

This process of giving aesthetic and normative models in order to decodify our environment was called formalization because, from a phenomenologic perspective, this is the process that gives the appropriate form to reality. Verdaguer was, for sure, one of the most important originators of this new look to the landscape of Catalonia.

This process of formalization of the look is really clear in the first book of the Album, what he used to talk about the Montseny (and about Montserrat), because in his text is clear the conscience of his role of look builder:

[El Montseny] "Es una muntanya venerable, si fa o no fa, com el Montserrat: estoig de patris afectes d'ençà que Mossèn Cinto la va cantar, i niu de belleses naturals no superades i sovint cobertes amb la blanca cabellera de la neu" .

Verdaguer, as the examples show, helped a lot to fix some of the most important topics nowadays in the mountain environment. If Montserrat, according to Jordi Martí, is or has been our mystical refuge, the Montseny has been a symbol of longevity, and the Pyrenees, the preservation of the race. All of those symbols were fixed by Verdaguer. Through his poetry, Catalonia could use some names that excited its curiosity. Verdaguer, by giving name to those places and describing them, invited to visit and revisit them, to see and remeet a part of our country.

Montseny, cross in the peak of Matagalls (photograph by J.M. Jerez)

Montserrat, Sant Miquel's cross (photograph by J.M. Jerez)

In this sense, he was the interlocutor. The first times of the return of the Catalan poetry, it was not really interested in mountaneering, although they began with the idea of the Catalan mountain. If, lately, this mountaineering began to be really important in our culture was because of the role of the walkers. And, maybe, one of the most important of those walkers was Jacint Verdaguer.

His poem "Canigó" was made in 1886, and history, tradition, legends, geography and natural facts were mixed in the shape of a poem. In Verdaguer's poetry, the Pyrenees appear as a topic place, as well as Montserrat, Vic's plain, etc. Verdaguer knew Catalonia very well, and its culture and traditions too. His main teacher was nature. His landscapes, nevertheless, were green and humid, ruinful and full of rural traditions.

His main importance was in naming every place, in awaking the interest for unknown places. According to Jaume Massó, in 1921, the success achieved by Verdaguer's Croquis Pirinencs was all due to the magic name of the Pyrennees.

Even Pere Alsius asked himself why is it so strange that people loved Banyoles lake if two poets like Jacint Verdaguer and Dolors Monserdà de Macià have been inspired by it. According to Alsius, there is nothing strange that people, especially foreigners, could show his love for places elevated by lots of artists.

Artists like Mossèn Cinto, whose main due was to reproduce the world around them, have invented our past generations look to their surrounding places and have taught them how to look to this unknown world. Verdaguer, according to this well-known Virolai, was able to illuminate the Catalan land and guide the people to heaven.

Sant Martí de Centelles, March, 2002
Francesc Roma i Casanovas
http://www.geocities.com/francescroma/curriculum5.htm

Biographic summary - Jacint Verdaguer
Information found in the website of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana

Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló was born in Folgueroles (Osona) in 1845, in a poor rural family. Although their poverty, his parents had cultural formation, and his mother helped him in some readings.

In 1855 he began studying in the Seminar in Vic, where he stayed for about 15 years. His academical formation was divided in three groups: humanity and rhetorics, philosophy and theology, and moral, canonical law and practice. Because of his own discoveries in the libraries in Vic and due to the influence of his teachers and mates, he could read Greek and Latin classics, like Virgil, Ovid and Plato, as well as Italian classics, Spanish authors from all times, French Romantic writers and Catalan writers from all times. He still was a student when two of his poetries were awarded in the contest called "Jocs Florals" in Barcelona. The two poetries were "Els Minyons d'En Veciana" and "A la Mort d'En Rafel de Casanova".

By the same year, he published the poem "Dos Màrtirs de Ma Pàtria, o siga Lluci i Marcià" in the newspaper called "Eco de la Montaña", and he got in touch with some of the most important people of his times, like Milà i Fontanals or Marià Aguiló. Two years later, the founded the Esbart de Vic (association related with traditional dances), formed by a group of students full of enthusiasm and Romantic feelings and ideas who were dedicated to poetry.
In 1870 he became a priest. Instead of being sent to Barcelona to continue with his studies (like most of his mates), he was sent to a little parish in Vinyoles d'Orís. He never left poetry (he worked in his epic poem "L'Atlàntida") although he had to do all the work of the parish and of his illness. In 1874, he went to Barcelona in order to recuperate his health. He spent there 8 months, and he used to go to "La Penya dels Minyons" (where he met the future bishops Torras i Bages, Estalella and Cortès), he met with the members of L'Esbart de Vic, and partipated in meetings, where he used to observe political fights and literary tendencies. In the same year, he became the priest of a ship in the Companyia Transatlàntica, that belonged to the Marquès de Comillas. He spent there 2 years, and went 9 times to America (Cuba), a time he used to recuperate himself from his illness and to finish "L'Atlàntida". This poem was awarded in the "Jocs Florals" of 1877, and its success was immediate. "L'Atlàntida" was treated as the culminating point of the Catalan movement of "La Renaixença". From here on, 17 years of successes and prosperity for Verdaguer began.

From the end of 1876, Verdaguer lived in the palace of the Marquès de Comillas as the family priest. Because of this, he could observe the noblest social personalities. He also was able to create some of his most important works. Since 1883, he worked in administrating the donations to beneficence.

All of this gave him a lot of troubles, but also a great influence in society. He travelled a lot (Occitania, Castilla, Tolosa de Llenguadoc, Rome, Donosti...).

In Barcelona, Verdaguer centered his aims in divulgating youth ideas, thanks to his prestige and to the help of Jaume Collell (a member of the Esbart). He published several texts in the paper "La Veu de Montserrat" and in a book collection. Both preparated the millenium festivity of Montserrat, organizing poetry contests. Mossèn Cinto wrote the "Llegenda de Montserrat" and "Cançons de Montserrat", where can be found the "Virolai".

In 1879, together with the organization of this millenium festivity, Verdaguer published "Idil·lis i Cants Místics". According to Carles Riba, they are an example of angelic nature. It contains religious poetry, on the contrary way began with "L'Atlàntida", a kind of prophane work. In 1882, he published "Lo Somni de Sant Joan. Llegenda del Sagrat Cor de Jesús", a text that was widened in 1887. In 1883, he published "L'Oda a Barcelona", that shows the construction of the myth of the progressive spirit as well as the expansionist desires of the new industrial Catalan bourgeoisie.

In trying to get to the popular sensibility, Verdaguer continued writing religious poetry, the perfect weapon to get followers to Catholicism and to Catalan language.

The highest point in this times of plenitude was "Canigó" (1886), his second epic poem that was used by Verdaguer to go over his insatisfactions and to rectify the errors that, according to the poet, existed in "L'Atlàntida".

Frontpage of the publication of the poem "Canigó"

He wrote "Canigó" taking into account the notes he took in crossing the Catalan Pyrenees between 1879 and 1884. There, he could see the scenery of the poem in detail, what he completed later with history, folklore and geography books.

1886 is an important year because of two other contrary facts: his "coronation" by the bishop of Vic as the poet of Catalonia (highest point in Verdaguer's career) and his trip to Jerusalem (the beginning of his spiritual crisis).

Even though he publised several works apart from the spiritual change (like "Pàtria" in 1888), from 1886 Verdaguer lived in a deep crisis provoked by his trip to Palestine and Egipt, from where he came back really confused. The "Dietari d'un Pelegrí a Terra Santa" (1888) are the notes he took during this trip, notes that explain his desire of purification and the change of direction of his life. This change consisted in dedicate himself more to religion than to poetry, what included a chaotic practice of charity (what produced him a lot of economical problems) and that, lately on, put him in touch with exorcist practices. By this time, he entered to the service of the Duran family, a widow and two daughters, to which he promised not to abandon. This inconditional help to invalid and his behaviours annoyed the Marques de Comillas, who, a few months later, decided to fire him.

He was not understood by the religious authorities, who thought he was mad and sent him far away from Barcelona, in the small sanctuary of La Gleva (near Vic), where he discovered that what was called "retirement" should be called "reclusion". In 1895, in front of this unthinkable situation, Verdaguer escaped from La Gleva and came back to Barcelona.

Only chance avoided the police intervention. Because of this escape, Verdaguer sent a small press note in which he asked for justice and for the help of the inhabitants of Barcelona. The notice was so shocking that it became an scandal. A month later, an eclesiastical court forbidded him to work as a priest. Verdaguer counterattacked with some letters in newspapers (called "Un Sacerdot Perseguit"), thanks to which he won strength and new friends. In 1895, a group of friends published Verdaguer's letters under the title of "Mossèn Jacinto Verdaguer en Defensa Pròpia", considered to be some of the best proses of the first modern Catalan journalism.

In 1896 he published "Flors del Calvari. Llibre de consols" as a personal justification, with atacks to his enemies, and writings and pamphlets like "Verdaguer Reivindicat", that showed a wounded and rebellious Verdaguer. Apart from that, he also wrote "La Pomerola", an autobiographical poem. In 1897 he published in newspapers the second set of articles, even more agressive than the previous one.

Monument to Verdaguer in the so-called gardens in Folgueroles (photograph: J.M. Jerez)

Monument to Verdaguer in the cross Diagonal-Pg. Sant Joan in Barcelona (photograph: J.M. Jerez)

In 1898, he retracted from everything and the church rehabilitated him. He spent his last years in the Bethlem church, in Barcelona.

In the four last years of his life, Verdaguer returned to the literary activity. He directed some literary and religious magazines: "Lo Pensament català", "L'Atlàntida" and "La Creu del Montseny; he prepared new books and participated in public acts. His last books published where "Santa Eulàlia. Poemet" (1899), "Aires del Montseny (1901) and "Flors de Maria", that was published some months after the poet's death in June 10th, 1902, in Vallvidrera.

He was buried in Montjuïc accompanied by an spectacular showing of popular mourning during the pass of the comitive by the Rambla of Barcelona.

His poems have been harmonized by several composers, like Nicolau, Morera, Millet and Falla, and have been imitated, edited, studied and translated to several languages. From the editions of his full works, the most important one was made between 1913 and 1925, that consisted of 30 volums.

Verdaguer route

In commemorating 100 years of the death of Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer (that occurred in June, 10th, 2002), the association Senders de Catalunya created a thematic route that connects several significative points in the life of the poet. It begins in Folgueroles (birth place) and ens in Vil·la Joana (Collserola) (death place).

This route has own marks and can be made in 10 days, all full of emotion because of the route and of the visited places.

In order to inaugurate the route, as well as to contribute to the several acts organized during the 2002, the association Senders de Catalunya organized an inaugural walk in five weekends.

The dates and the sections are the following:
March, 2nd and 3rd: from Folgueroles to Viladrau the first day; the next day to the Matagalls and ending in Coll Formic.
April, 6th and 7th: From coll Formic to Aiguafreda the first day; the second, from Aiguafreda to Sant Feliu de Codines.
April, 27th and 28th: From Sant Feliu de Codines to Sant Llorenç Savall the first day; the next day, until Rellinars.
May, 25th and 26th: From Rellinars to Monistrol the first day; the next day, from Monistrol to Montserrat and, later on, Olesa.
June, 8th and 9th: From Olesa to the road from Rubí to Sabadell the first day; the next day, from this road to Vil·la Joana (Collserola).

Links related with Jacint Verdaguer

Biography of Jacint Verdaguer of the Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana
http://www.partal.com/aelc/autors/verdaguerj/

Biography of Jacint Verdaguer in Lletra UOC
http://www.uoc.es/lletra/cat/noms/jacintverdaguer.html

Biography of Jacint Verdaguer by Miquel Alonso
http://www.webpersonal.net/nova/verdaguer/index.htm

Websites related with Verdaguer
http://www.geocities.com/depcatalajm/verdaguer.html

Information of the activities of the anniversary
http://www.anyverdaguer.com/AV/cat/

Biography of Verdaguer related with mountaineering by Francesc Roma i Casanovas
http://www.geocities.com/francescroma/curriculum5.htm

Town hall of Folgueroles
http://www.folgueroles.com/framap.html

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