#calaceit

De Salses a Guardamar i de Fraga a l’Alguer: les comarques de parla catalana una a una. 51/88: el Matarranya (La Franja).

Matarranya is a shire named after the river that crosses it. Its capital city is Vall-de-roures, but Calaceit is considered its cultural capital city. Besides these two, none of the other towns in Matarranya have more than a few hundred inhabitants.

Its landscape consists of hills, often covered in olive tree fields and sheep flocks. The river Matarranya, though quite small, flows through the rocks and in Besseit even has created a beautiful canyon, known as Estrets del Parrissal.

Some caves with prehistoric rock art are located in Matarranya, all of which are protected as part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site “rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean basin”. In fact, the first prehistoric rock art found in the Mediterranean basin was the cave called Roca dels Moros, in Cretes, Matarranya, discovered in 1903 by the archaeologist from Calaceit Joan Cabré. Other discoveries followed, such as Els Gascons or La Fenellassa caves. Some of the cave’s art was removed from the walls and taken to museums to preserve them.

View from the Ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) archaeological ruins of Poblat de Sant Antoni in Calaceit, La Franja.

[Image: Three girls from Massalió (Matarranya, Franja de Ponent) wearing the traditional clothes of Franja and a part of Aragon and the traditional headpiece to carry the bread of Santa Àgueda festivity. (Photo by F. Javier Sáenz Guallar).]

Santa Àgueda (Saint Agatha) is the festivity of Matarranya (la Franja de Ponent) and some towns of Terres de l’Ebre (Catalonia) as a celebration of women, since Saint Agatha is the patron saint of women.

The festivity is always organized by a group of only women. The traditions of this festivity include the nomination of a woman as mayor and an all-women city hall for 24 hours, the speech given by the day mayor from the balcony of the city hall, dressing in traditional clothes for the important events, concerts and dance in the evening, popular meals only for women (in some towns there are also popular meals for everyone)…

[Image: the all-women city hall for the day in Calaceit, Franja de Ponent.]

In Matarranya, some girls wear the headpiece you can see it in the photo above. It’s called “panistre” and it’s used to carry bread. The girls bring this bread to mass, where it is blessed. After that, they hand out the bread to the rest of people.

Something similar is done in the Terres de l’Ebre where women carry the blessed bread on their heads during Saint Agatha’s processon, but in Terres de l’Ebre they don’t wear the “panistre” hat.

[Image: women carrying blessed breads in Saint Agatha’s procession in Riba-roja d’Ebre, Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia. Photo by immaterialebre.]

Calaceit, Matarranya, Teruel