El món de la costa brava

Jaume Pol Girbal, 1986

THE CASE OF EMPÚRIABRAVA

The former «Clidanium», this is, the river Fluvià, has always done the same nonsense as other streams that flow into the platja de Pals and the eastern area of the golf the Roses; it wanted to be outdone. From the south to the north, Ter, Fluvià and Muga have got old moving to the sea sand, pebbles and gravel from the mountains: all kinds of contributions stolen from the inside of the geology. The sea has transported them; it has polished the materials and has relied upon the strength of the storms to take it back to the beaches and the dunes. In this constant negotiation, the solid ground has gained more and more space.

There have always been blocked streams (such as the Daró, in Ullastret); and the inhabitants of Empordà have had to fight as if they were Dutch in order to clean up and fertilize those areas. The sea used to reach Torroella de Montgrí, not any more. It does not reach Castelló d’Empúries either. Those low areas of the Empordà used to be full of lakes and swamps. That would not help as regards health conditions: all the Empordà would face the consequences when the anopheline mosquito was the most numerous among all the winged animals.

Human beings are also part of the nowadays called ecological balance. The Tramontane improved the health of the people living near the coast. For every poor victim that Joan of Narbonne claimed in the open sea, how many human lives did he save against the epidemics brought by mosquitos, that would grow in the miasmas? In Roman times, the Tramontane inspired the building of a temple, Narbonne, a windy village for them. Yvette Barbaza offers, in her book, specific data and details about a procession that, until the second third of the 18th century, would go to Requesens to thank and implore the winds of the north(1). Narbonne was victim of the closures and the ponds of Leucata, as well as the villages and hamlets of the coastal area of the Empordà were victims of the marshlands and fresh waters mainly fed by the Ter, at the basin of Pals, and by the Fluvià and the Muga, in the gulf of Roses.

We have been talking about these issues with Joan Ramilans. We have had dinner in Sant Pere de les Pomes, we have taken a nap near an unfinished wharf, we have struggled to find our way out and now we are at a close distance from Empúriabrava ⁽²⁾. The man who has taken the risk of building Empúriabrava is a friend of ours. His name is Ferran Vilallonga. As Joan de Ramilans, he comes from the inner part of the shire of La Selva. He is stocky, quite talkative and full of energy. When we were kids, we used to call him “the casserole” because of a huge beret he used to wear. Apparently, the Vilallongas came from a lineage of Carlist landowners.

You cannot talk about Empúriabrava and not mention Santa Margarida, which is more northern and less important. The last time Josep Pla edited his “Guia de la Costa Brava”, he still did not know about the decisive appearance of Vilallonga, which started right after the onset of the “technical worries of the engineer Mr. Llansó and (thanks to)the interest Mr.Miquel Mateu had for this country. The scoring of the Muga is a fact. Remembering the wealth and the time lost, the swamps and the dead waters caused by the previous neglecting, the infertility of so much land provoked by the cosmic wrecking, would be absolutely useless. If the waters of the Muga could ever be profitable, we could thank God for that”⁽³⁾

Miquel Mateu i Pla, owner of the Castell de Peralada, had inherited and was the administrator, with the vividness of a little ant, of the great fortune his father Damià, who was from the Montseny, had left. Miquel Mateu got married to a girl from Celrà, Júlia Quintana. Miquel Mateu’s mother was the sister of the archbishop cardinal Pla i Deniel, Primate of Spain. Most of the fortune of grandpa Mateu was based on his way of investing within the company Birkitz- founder of the brand “Hispano Suiza”- his earnings that had been accumulating by doing business with second-hand iron. He was known as “the king of irons”, which is the only title he transmitted to his heir after rejecting the title of Count offered by King Alfons XII- “You, from now on, are a Count” the king told him. – “I am not a count. I am anti-Communist”- “Are you afraid, Mr. Damián?”- “I am not afraid of communists, but of the counts around me...”⁽⁴⁾

The second “king of the irons” had inherited, among other things, his father’s disdain for noble titles. He was the first mayor of Barcelona after the victory of the Francoists. He accepted the position as ambassador in Paris. He was good at negotiating and making deals. With the “Caudillo”, he knew how to keep his distance: he neither accepted the proposal of a blue blood injection. Later, disappointed, he left politics. Then he became, in Barcelona, president of Foment del Treball and of the Caixa de Pensions, besides being the main owner of the “Brusi”. The Mateus spend long times in Peralada: they would keep moving between the castle and the summer house they had in Garbet. The father-in-law of the current President of “Casinos de Catalunya, S.A.” did a lot for the Empordà. In addition to the first move for the scoring of the Muga, he gave status to the wines from Peralada. He would communicate in a plain and cutting way. That alias of “king of the irons” was not used ironically, but with a reverential respect. My uncle Teodor admired and feared him : “The king of the irons looks at you and can read your mind. If you want to screw him, worse luck!...”- he claimed.

The Mateus were not counts; they were “kings”...

Vilallonga has made of Empúriabrava the work of his life. I am aware he has gone through hard times and he has quite more often been the victim of envy than of financial consortiums.

«Avara povertà!» as Dante used to say, maybe mixing up our «povertà» with our obsession to turn lights off, as defined by Rusiñol. For about thirty years, I have heard people say Vilallonga was stupid, or mad, or trapped in debt: -“Tourism will go back to lower numbers. That Vilallonga eats more than what he can see. He cannot succeed.”- as the birds of ill omens used to tell me. Nobody writes about cowards. Sow deep, put some manure and let time do the rest: Empúriabrava is a reality.

(1)	Yvette Barbaza. «Le paysage...». Íbid.
(2)	The brandname is «Ampuriabrava». Under that name, the first advertising moves were made.
(3)	J. Pla. «Guia...». Íbid.
(4)	Josep Pla. «Retrats de passaport». Volum 17 de les Obres Completes. «Ed Destino». Barcelona.