Pirates in Llan\u00e7\u00e0 and at the Cap de Creus<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nWherever there was successful trading along the Mediterranean Sea, there were also pirates seeking a share.\u00a0 Pirates usually settled near the major trade routes.\u00a0 Catalonia was highly rated by the pirates because of its relative prosperity.\u00a0 From the Middle Ages to the XVII Century Catalonia was visited and revisited.\u00a0 And, Llan\u00e7\u00e0 was not spared. King Felipe II reported to the 1581 town council of Barcelona, that the notorious pirate Otxali, was coming from Italy to Catalan waters with sixty galleys. The Barcelonese sent out messengers to warn the coast villages. Gaspar de Vallgornera, abbot of the cloister of San Pere de Roda and by his office responsible for the surrounding small towns, forbad the fishermen from Llan\u00e7\u00e0 and Port de la Selva to go fishing until Otxali had withdrawn.\u00a0\u00a0 Llan\u00e7\u00e0\u2019s defence strategy was simple but effective. Its inhabitants briefly warded off the first attack of the pirates scantily and thence fled then to the near mountains. The Llan\u00e7anese forces were strengthened with men from the nearby inland villages. The governor of Girona had obliged these small towns to send men to reinforce the local forces protecting the coast. The normal service was to be posted for up two weeks in the mountains around a coastal village and to return to their native villages as soon as the danger was past.\u00a0 During the XVI and XVII Century the Catalans structured their defensive positions well, nevertheless in the year 1652 thirty armed men from Llan\u00e7\u00e0 had to beat off an attack of three pirate ships. Only the introduction of the steamship ended the piracy danger. The last official mention dated the fourth of June 1726 from Llan\u00e7\u00e0: a messenger was sent to Cadaqu\u00e9s, to warn the inhabitants of a suspected freebooting ship.<\/p>\n
Was Llan\u00e7\u00e0 French?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThe quarrel around the state boundary Beginning in the year 1646 a vehement quarrel about the French\/Spanish state boundary broke out between Catalunya and the Roussillon (France).\u00a0 From the 13th of August until the 7th of November 1659 the prime ministers of both states, cardinal Mazarin and Luis de Haro met during twenty-four sessions in Bidasoa, to settle the impasse. The meeting place, a tent, had been equipped with all imaginable luxury by Velazquez. Nevertheless the result of the negotiations was rather meagre; they only agreed that the boundary must be set, and left the details to a Spanish\/French consignment. This sat in the Pyrenees town of C\u00e9ret.\u00a0 France sent the bishops Pere de Marca (Languedoc) and Jacint Seroni from Orange.\u00a0 Spain\u2019s representatives were the Catalans Miquel Salva i Vallgornera and Josep Romeu de Ferrer. In the course of the negotiations the French argued stubbornly that the villages of Llan\u00e7\u00e0 and Port de la Selva, the cloister Sant Pere de Rodes and a part of the Cap de Creus was French soil. They referred to a former division by the king Jaume I according to which the area south to the Cap de Creus belonged to the Roussillon.\u00a0 After much debate the group\u2019s horse-trading resulted in a decision to not decide on the triangle in dispute and to place the border between Banyuls and the Cap de Cervera (Cerb\u00e8re).\u00a0 Thus was decided the current state boundary.\u00a0 Controversies around the location of this border continued up until the twentieth century. Wine and oil: the fortune of Llan\u00e7\u00e0<\/p>\n
A time of prosperity and peace<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nBetween 1718 and 1720 when wheat prices were very low, wine was a scare commodity. This motivated the inhabitants of the Empord\u00e0, to plant fallow plots with vines.\u00a0 Line by line new terrain was cultivated around Llan\u00e7\u00e0, up into the mountains.\u00a0 In addition, the Llan\u00e7anese farmed other ground too, on land that was unsuitable for viticulture they planted olive trees.\u00a0 The quality of the fruit of Llan\u00e7\u00e0\u2019s olive trees produced excellent olive oil.\u00a0 An important historical circumstance favoured this economical evolution in an exceptional way:\u00a0 Catalonia had introduced the inheriting-lease as a regional right.\u00a0 Poor people who could not dream until then of possessing their own property could now cultivate their own land through annual payments. The foundation was set for a modern Catalunya. The viticulturists cultivated vines for white wine, red wine, Garnatxa and Moscatel. During harvest-time buyers from many nations rendezvoused in Llan\u00e7\u00e0: Spaniards, Italian, later also from French and even from Germany.\u00a0 An anonymous witness of this happy time recorded the following:\u00a0 \u201cThe Genovese (Italian), who try the kindness, alcohol degree and sweetness of the wine from Llan\u00e7\u00e0 became immediately the most enthusiastic customers. Their launches were anchored in the Port of Llan\u00e7\u00e0, loaded the sweet fruit and took it over the sea.\u201d\u00a0 Also French or Germans came later and bought cartloads and cartloads of all offered sorts. And more than a few Spaniards found their way to Llan\u00e7\u00e0, enlarging the number of buyers to purchase the marvellous bunches of grapes, which made Llan\u00e7\u00e0 famous.<\/p>\n
The origin of Port de Llan\u00e7\u00e0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nWhen piracy did not threaten the inhabitants of the Empord\u00e0 any more, the fishing villages along the coast arose.\u00a0 This was at the end of the XVII century.\u00a0 Until then the fishermen of Llan\u00e7\u00e0 lived in the village and maintained only some huts in the “Port” in order to stow fishing equipment.\u00a0 At this time fishing was an important source of income and the first people built houses for themselves and their families near the sea. The Port de Llan\u00e7\u00e0\u2019s growth was mostly during the following century.\u00a0\u00a0 In addition to the fishing industry the economy was bolstered by the exporting of olive oil to France and Italy.\u00a0 The fishermen built their homes close at each other as if to protect their houses against the last pirates that may emerge at any time.\u00a0 Between the XVIII and the beginning of the XX Century the place probably changed very little.\u00a0 During this time only about 200 people lived here.\u00a0 The population only increased when tourism expanded.\u00a0 Probably a great number of fellow French citizens emigrated to take part in the foundation of Port de Llan\u00e7\u00e0.\u00a0 Records show that during the years 1620 to 1640 twenty-six “French” men were buried on the cemetery of Llan\u00e7\u00e0; the women were not counted. One can suppose that at this date about 20 percent of the local inhabitants were emigrants from France. Many French family names are evident here today: Garriga or Gros for example. The port of Llan\u00e7\u00e0 has, as most of the fishing villages of the coast, its own chapel. It was consecrated as the “Mare de Deu”, the mother of God. The church\u2019s history or legend is based upon a ship getting caught in a violent storm in the gulf of Leon. The sailors feared never reaching a secure port again.\u00a0 In their hour of need the crew and the captain swore to the mother of God that they\u2019d construct a chapel to her honour on the next firm ground under the feet. The firm ground onto which they put their feet was the port of Llan\u00e7\u00e0.\u00a0 The inscription on the portal of the chapel shows the (probable) year of its construction: 1691.<\/p>\n
The Vine Louse ends the happy times<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nViticulture was the most important sector of Llan\u00e7\u00e0\u2019s economy during the XIX Century. The wines of the Empord\u00e0 garnered top prices and were exported to numerous countries of Europe.\u00a0 It brought an era of extraordinary prosperity from 1830 to 1855 to Llan\u00e7\u00e0 as well as to the surrounding small towns of Vilajuiga, Garriguella, Rabos and Vilamaniscle.\u00a0 But the vine louse (cat. filloxera) abruptly ended the beautiful time. Detected for the first time in America in 1854, it was imported from there to Europe and rapidly reached Spain via France. It is a pitiful insect from the family of the plant louse. Its most dangerous pitiful form makes bile-like motes at the roots. To destroy a vine requires a complete evolutionary cycle of the pest, and this occurs best in warmer climates. In this respect the southern wine areas suffered far more than vineyards in the northern European countries.\u00a0 When the vine stock is infected, it dies rapidly.\u00a0 Llan\u00e7\u00e0 mentioned the vine louse for the first time in the year 1856 in the chronicles of the municipality. The mayor offered to free the local viticulturists from all taxes because the failure of the grape harvest.\u00a0 First, the government required the municipality to measure the actual damage.\u00a0 But, soon it was recognized that every vineyard was equally damaged and destroyed. In October 1857 the municipality applied again for the liberation of all taxes retroactively for six years. The wine harvest has been cancelled since six years actually, and the wine is finally the main source of revenue of the place… In the following years no more mention of the infestation is to be found in the chronicles. It seems that good harvests returned after treating the vine stocks with sulphur.\u00a0 However, in 1879 a viticulturist again detected filloxera in his vineyard in Rabos. The vine stocks of the entire Empord\u00e0 were again affected. Up to the middle of the nineties of the XIX century the municipalities of the area directed again and again petitions concerning tax reductions to the central government. By the year 1904 there are references that the wine harvests were again more or less normal.\u00a0 But the wine economy of Llan\u00e7\u00e0 has never completely recovered from this disaster. So it was presumably ok to many viticulturists when tourism later reclaimed their vineyard for bungalows and blocks of apartments.<\/p>\n
The first train comes to Llan\u00e7\u00e0 in 1878<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nAn unknown author from Llan\u00e7\u00e0 described the initiation of the train route between Barcelona and Portbou:\u00a0 \u201cThe solemn opening occurred on 20th January 1878. The special train was equipped with five marvellous first class wagons from Germany. The engine was adorned with the Spanish coat of arms, between the national and the French flag, adorned with flowers, laurel and olive wreaths. The railway started around half past six o’clock in the morning from Barcelona, stopped five minutes in Granollers and reached Girona at nine o’clock. The bishop blessed the wagons and the engine. At the altar, built up at the railway station, the holy mass was read. The temperature was a degree under zero, therefore the mentioned ecclesiastical authority allowed all present that could not resist the rigorous temperature to keep the hats on.\u00a0 When the religious ceremonies ended, the authorities and other visitors were boarded in the station restaurant. Then the convoy moved on.\u00a0 In Figueres Captain Sr. Blanco joined, along with the military governor of the city, Sr. Dolsa, as well as other authorities and visitors.\u00a0 When the train arrived in Llan\u00e7\u00e0, the railway station was filled with people that greeted and applauded the train enthusiastically.\u00a0 In Colera the train was welcomed by a company of the infantry regiment “Asia no. 49” accompanied by an orchestra.\u00a0 At the 23rd of the same month the line was placed in continuous in operation. Two trains regularly travelled to and from Barcelona and Portbou, around 5h35 and 11h30 and 5h55 and 12h40.\u00a0 Since this historical event in the annals of Llan\u00e7\u00e0 its inhabitants enjoyed the great advantages of this manner of transport, in popular as also in economical respect.\u201d The mayor did not seem to share completely this opinion.\u00a0 On 12th May 1888 he addressed an application to the governor with the request of tax reductions for the village. The population of the village had been reduced drastically since the completion of the railway track. On the one hand, the foreigners who had helped to build the railway have left, and on the other hand many inhabitants had emigrated because of the filloxera. The custom, to plant trees at public places as a symbol of freedom dates from the times of the French Revolution. After the civil wars and military rumours of the XIX Century’s the Llan\u00e7anese also planted their tree of freedom at the Pla\u00e7a Major. The tree still exists today and is considered a major landmark of the village. Probably it was planted in 1870. The mayor (1897-89) Pere Purcallas Pau mentions this date in the following poem: \u201cThe history of this village comes from far away, further than the horizon, with alternation cases and failures, allied to the monastic sovereignty of the cloister Sant Pere de Rodes. I know you suffered tireless when one changed your name in Llansa; your own bastards of sons dared to castellanisate it. The tree that grows at the Pla\u00e7a whose bough expand was planted in the year 1870, and anno 1872 it was supported, and still today his leaves flutter as those of a blooming tree in the garden and if you do not joggle it, he will become increasingly powerful, today a new branch, tomorrow a new branch; if one cares of it with reason and love, it will live so long as the best servants, the eternal spring opens one morning his strong arms in order to place a dream that was also the mine once into the cradle of this place : a dream, brimful with headway, citizen freedom and modern age.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the Middle Ages until the modern times The port of Llan\u00e7\u00e0 was not always a port with quay walls for large fishing boats and places for hundreds of leisure boats, with a shopping street and residential buildings for locals and tourists. For several centuries the port was only populated by small fishing boats that […]\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"parent":942,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21015","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21015\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cbrava.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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