In 1898, Mr Pere Homs Guanter, mayor of Colera (2nd
district of the township of Portbou), planted a centenarian
plane tree in the middle of the Pi and Maragall Square
and in the corners he also planted 13 more trees which
later had to be pulled up because they hindered carts
and barrows.
Sculpture by the artist Joan Padern, 1991, settled
in the beach d´en Goixa, in front of the train
station, whose ground belonged to RENFE, but which
was given to the town hall for that purpose.
In December 1877, the north wind destroyed the railways
of the bridge of Colera. So, in the 20th January 1878,
there was the inauguration of the railway bridge of
Tarragona-Barcelona-France. Lots of important civil
and military people from Spain and France were present
in that event.
The tunnels of the train to Colera are Grifeu, 586,40
meters, Sant Antoni, 359,80, and Pineda, 816,80 meters.
The viaduct of Colera is 20 meters high above the
valley, the length of the girder is 187,61 meters,
and the weight is 248,836 Kg. It is divided into five
parts, two of them are 31 meters and three of them
are 41,04 meters.
| OLIVE
GROVES AND VINEYARDS |
The existense of vineyards and olive groves is absolutely
remote. While the village was growing, in 1770, there
was a newplanting, however with the “filoxera”,
most part of these plantations disappeared. At present,
the only memory we have about them are the dry walls
which can still be seen.
Now, the “Cavas Castillo de Perelada, SA”
is the only enterprise which owns the biggest part
of the vineyards in the village. There are, although,
small farmers who still keep their plantations in
a very traditional way.
The typical variety of the village is the musk.
- In 1881, there was
in Colera a weekly newspaper called “La voz
de Colera”
- In 1890, there existed
by-laws related to the baths in which in the article
184, it allowed men to have a shower naked in the
place known as “el nadadó” of Colera,
placed between the stones Les Campanes and La punta
dels pescadors.
- In 1916, there is evidence
of a weekly newspaper called “El Duende”.
- The only building present
in Rovellada, in 1933, was a brothel, where it was
not allowed to be opened. Unfortunately, the owner,
her husband and a neighbour from the village were
killed in 1936 during the Civil war. The dead bodies
were buried in an unknown place and any of their relatives
asked for them.
- It exists a popular
tradition which explains that when the Independence
war finished, some French fugitives while returning
to their country, went to Colera. When they were crossing
the Coll del Frare a group of villagers were waiting
for them and they were obliged to pronounce the word
MÀRFEGA, since they were French, they mispronounced
the word, saying MARFÈGA. As a result, the
French were thrown down the hill.
- The popular beach Platja
d´en Goixa is also popularly called the beach
of the death, since the neighbour township of Portbou
did not have a cementry since 1900 and they could
see the death bodies buried in Colera, while they
were landing in that beach.
- Nudist beach of Borró,
in Garbet.
