Congost de Mont-rebei
Desfiladero de Montrebei
Interesting facts
- The water at the bottom of the gorge belongs to the Canelles reservoir, and when its level drops an older path cut lower in the rock reappears.
- On the Montfalcó route, a suspension footbridge about 35 metres long crosses the reservoir between Aragon and Catalonia.
- The route's two wooden stairways, bolted to the cliffs with steel fixings, climb height differences of about 33 and 50 metres.
- The cliffs shelter Petrocoptis montsicciana, a small flowering plant endemic to the Montsec range.
- Egyptian and griffon vultures, two species of chough and the elusive wallcreeper also nest on the walls of the gorge.
- The dinosaur tracks found here were left by three-toed hadrosaurs, the duck-billed plant-eaters of the Late Cretaceous.
- On the Aragonese bank stand the tower of Girbeta castle and two Romanesque churches dedicated to Our Lady of the Gorge, one of them in ruins.
- Relict European beeches, survivors of a cooler past climate, still grow on the shaded slopes of the gorge.
Why it is worth it
Where the Noguera Ribagorçana forces its way through the Montsec range, the mountain splits into two sheer walls of limestone more than 500 metres high, in places only about twenty metres apart. The Congost de Mont-rebei, on the border between Catalonia and Aragon, is a tall, narrow slot, and it is the only great gorge in Catalonia that no road, railway or power line has ever crossed.
The river divides the Montsec d'Ares on the Catalan side from the Montsec de l'Estall on the Aragonese side, and the gorge touches three municipalities: Àger and Sant Esteve de la Sarga in Catalonia, and Viacamp i Lliterà in Aragon. On the Catalan wall a path has been cut into the rock itself, in some places running through short tunnels, high above the water and without railings. Since 2013 the Montfalcó walkways, wooden stairways bolted to the Aragonese cliffs, have linked the two sides along a route of about four kilometres, making it possible to walk from one region to the other through the heart of the gorge.
The cliffs face different ways, and their plants show it: Mediterranean vegetation on the sun-facing side, Eurosiberian species on the shaded one. Large birds of prey nest in the walls, among them bearded vultures, golden eagles and peregrine falcons, and otters and wildcats live along the river. In 2005 a palaeontological site with dinosaur trackways and bones was found in the area. About 600 hectares around the gorge were bought in 1999 by the foundation now called Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera to keep it intact, and they form part of a nature reserve along the Noguera Ribagorçana.
Getting there
The gorge lies in the Montsec range on the Catalonia–Aragon border; the town of Balaguer is about 34 km away in a straight line, and the village of Àger is the nearest Catalan municipality. The nearest airport is Lleida–Alguaire (ILD), about 41 km away in a straight line.
On these lists
42.07890, 0.68145per Wikidata