History of Freginals - part two

In that time, it was natural, for the people to walk from one village to another on foot, and they were very agile. For example, in a document of the year 1500 we are told that to walk from Ulldecona to Tortosa (some 30 kilometers) took six hours to walk.

During the 17th century, the village suffered incursions of pirates and bandits, who burned the small church. Because of that, two sentries watched from on top of Montsià Then if the alarm was raised the people could run all the way to Ulldecona Castle to take refuge. There is still a named pathway of the Bandits, ‘Camí dels Bandolers’ dating from that period today.

After the ancient church was burnt, a new one was constructed in 1742. It is the church that we see today. The façade is from late baroque style and inside is neo-Gothic. The bosses and patterns celebrate the life of Saint Bartomeu, and the local fiesta of our village is on the 24th August, in honour of the village’s patron Saint.

Also, we have another local party on the 16 of October, to remember the prayer in the Santíssim Sagrament being the one who gave Freginals a great storm and lightning on the same day of year 1831. Another important building in Freginals is the current Town hall, Which is in the former home of a village nobleman of about the same period.


On the 18th November of 1844 the emancipation of Freginals was signed. Until then the village had always been joined to Ulldecona, and it figures in the book of cups of the rents of Ulldecona (1796-1840) In the village there was also a factory of containers, a tavern of wine, a shop of oil, a factory of eau de vie and a bakery at that time . However, from 1844 we started to see the emergence of the independent village.

The History of Freginals – part one

Fregi is the name of the hedgehog of our region that wants to explain the history of Freginals village in a simple and understandable way. We will leave Fregi to explain.

Hello! I am the hedgehog Fregi, and I live in your village. Since I first moved here I liked life in the Montsià region, because it is not a very high area, where cold is hard, nor is it to low where you would not see anything. The Montsià Mountain, at its higher point, has a maximum altitude of 765 meters. From there I have seen many things.

First, let us place Freginals in the map: Freginals it is in the region of the Montsià, placed in the south of Catalonia. Freginals is 126 meters above sea level and the Montsia Mountain takes up 17'3 kilometres square in land area. The top area of the Montsià Mountain is 918'90 hectares

The most ancient settlers have left evidence of their existence in this area by painting some very beautiful figures in some caves near here. These caves are on the Sierra Godall Mountain directly in front of the Freginals railway high on the mountainside. They are the cave paintings of the tribes of the Masets and of the Llibreres. The tribe of the Masets drawing is distinguished by an archer with red paint and the tribe of the Llibreres by drawings of deer.

The same people who made these beautiful paintings, also manufactured tools to work with.

The FREGINALS word comes from the ancient Romanesque "Farraginale", that means a field of fodder, that is, that our terrain was destined long ago for fields or meadows to supply with fodder to the livestock of the region. The fodder is the sown wheat that is very dense and is reaped without ripening, in order to give the food to the livestock.

The flag of Freginals is three unripe clover leafs on a white cloth as this shows the history of ‘Farraginale’ as an area of the planting and harvesting on unripe fodder crops for the animals.

Before the year 1148, Freginals belonged to the Moorish king Taifa of Tortosa. In the year 1148, Ramon Berenguer IV conquered the kingdom of Tortosa with the help of many noblemen, among them one coming from Santa Maria de Miralles (near Igualada). In gratitude, Ramon Berenguer IV granted the Baron of Miralles the possession of the territories where now Freginals is.

On 12 March of year 1274 the hospitable command of Ulldecona, Bernat de Ribelles, started the colonization of our land around Freginals by granting an extension to the inhabitants of the land that was full of natural vegetation and developed it to the grazing for the peoples cows.

Until the year 1283 the people had to sleep within the walls of Ulldecona, but from this year, with a letter to the population conceded by the command of Cervera and Amposta, Guillem de Claramunt, it allowed them to remain living and sleeping on their land, At this time they constructed a small church for the Christian cult.

A history of Freginals

Recently The Generalitat de Catalunya, together with the director and teachers from the school in Freginals have written a history of the village of Freginals. This book is designed for the school children to learn the history of the village and has exercises in the back of the book.

After seeing the book, and the beautiful photographs of our area contained within I thought you may be interested in this. So I have started to translate the text for you with the blessing of Don Jose. But please remember this is primarily written for small children, and is based on a hedgehog called Fregi telling the story.

I hope you enjoy reading this, more will follow, as my time dictates.

Why have the Road Signs appeared in the Cami's?

I few weeks ago I was asked if I could find the answer to this question. My apologies for the length of time it has taken me.

However, I do now have a definitive answer: These are purely for the orienteering of cyclists and walkers using the green routes around our beautiful valley, as the new walking and cycling books now available have the road names marked on them for easy of reference.

Sorry if this is not quite what everyone was hoping to hear, but please do not shoot the messenger.

Free Catalan Lessons in Freginals

On the 15th September 2008 Basic Catalan classes will be starting in Freginals to be held at the school for seven weeks, twice per week for 2 hours per lesson.

These classes will assume no prior knowledge of the language, and aim to get you speaking and conversing in basic Catalan to the local community.

Places are limited to 15 and are filling fast. If you wish to partake of the classes please get in touch with me as soon as possible. I need your name, telephone number and NIE number to register you.

According to Isobel the Co-ordinator of Catalan language studies, these classes are suitable as a refresher for those who took the village classes two years ago.

You have no excuse now to learn the local language

At last some Answers to Questions

This morning I had a meeting with the Comarc de Montsia's Director of Immigration. This is the meeting I have been waiting for since January, when I started this blog. He has promised to arrange a further meeting within two weeks, with himself, myself and a number of agencies who can at last answer our enquiries and give us updated local information 'on tap'.

So at last it looks like I will have regular updates on here for you all.

Thank you all for your patience while I have sorted this out. Obviously persistence does eventually pay off here.

St Jordi

On Wednesday 23rd April the Catalan people celebrate Dia de St Jordi (St Georges Day). Like the UK St George is also the patron saint of Catalunya, this day is celebrated like St Valentines day in the UK.

But the tradition is slightly different, and personally I think better. So for you guys you need to buy your girl a single red rose, and the girls need to buy their guy a book.

There are many book markets open throughout the day, including in the school playground over the lunchtime period. But one of the main ones is in Amposta in the Castell area (old town), from 11am to 2pm then 5pm until 9pm. The roses can also be bought at the book markets - so no excuses this time guys.

I am not sure if any of the book stalls will sell books in English, but if you enjoy cooking and gardening, then you are sure to find books of interest to you, however you need to get your dictionary out as these will be in Catalan, but what better excuse do you need to improve your language skills.

Enjoy, and happy St Jordi day to you all

Driving in Spain on a UK Driving License

Over the past couple of days, I have been hearing the story of an English woman in the south of Spain being involved in a car accident, where the Police asked for her car documents, driving liecense and Spanish medical certificate, confirming she was fit to drive on Spanish roads. When she could not produce the Spanish medical certificate she was fined 5000 euros for not having one.

So, today I went to a local Gestor and asked him if this medical certificate was compulsory for driving on an English License here. His reply was that you can drive a UK or Spanish registered car on a UK Euro License quite legally here, and there is no compulsory obligation to take and pass the Spanish medical. However, he recommends that any person driving on a UK driving license takes the medical and gets the certificate which costs about 30 euros, as more and more police are requesting to see this certificate.

You will need to take your residency card or passport, two photos, and your driving license with you and the medical consists of an eye test, blood pressure check, and a perception computer based test. It takes about 15 minutes, and can obviously save you quite a few thousand euros. Amposta has two testing centres that I know of, the first is next to Mercadona and the second is GAM near to the Cafoc Ferriertia on Ave De la Rapita.

In my mind it has got to be worth it.

New Catalunya Forum

There is a new Catalunya Forum available at the link below. This has been set up by locals here in Freginals, so please take a look and join in the Forum

www.catalunyacommunity.com

Extension of El ports National Park

This afternoon two Agents Rural came up to our house, to confirm what buildings etc where on the land and to look at the forested part of our land. This is in preparation for the extension of the El Ports National Park into this valley.

They asked to see any plans of our land from Base, as well as looking around our land, and advising us that because some of our land is now forested, and has not been worked for a number of years, we would now require a license to clear it from Amposta, as the classification has changed. Any land already cleared and in production does not need this license and can be worked as normal.

We were also asked if we had added any building since the last survey, and that in future any alterations or additions will need planning permission from the local adjuntment, as the area was to become the national park and rules in national parks are very very strict.

These agents were very very nice, and offered advice and also left a phone number should we have further questions. The details they left are for Medi Ambient at c/Burgos 17, Amposta. Telephone no 977707320.

Re:Parcel

'Dad' of Freginals has now been located and will be reunited with his birthday present later today. Thank you to everyone for helping with this, especially Nigel for making us aware of the problem through the blog - Thanks Nigel.

Have you lost an expected Parcel!!

Today, at the Post Office Nigel was given a parcel addressed to 'Dad, Freginals'. Xavier the postman gave it to Nigel because he regularly receives post incorrectly addressed to him. The parcel was opened and it contains a present and a card, addressed again to Dad, and signed by two females.

If you think this parcel belongs to you, please contact Nigel directly on 977 053 057 within the next seven days, at which point if it remains unclaimed he will return it to the post office.

Please let others who may not have access to the internet, and this site know about this parcel. Thank you.