Admission to the space will be free and the Barcelona Provincial Council expects to receive a thousand daily visitors
The rehabilitation works of the enclosure, started in 2017, have involved an investment of 5.4 million euros
The natural park of Sant Miquel del Faiclosed since 2017 and under construction since then, will reopen to the public in March 2023. This was announced this Tuesday by the general coordinator of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Juan Echaniz, during a visit to this natural space. access to park and monastery will be gratuitousalthough the visits will be with appointment and, in principle, only weekends and holidays. The Provincial Council’s forecast is to receive a thousand visitors every day.
Sant Miquel del Fai, located on the border between the Vallès Oriental and the Moianès, is a space of nature and unique views. The Diputación acquired the farm in 2017 to guarantee the conservation of its heritage and to turn it into a public space open to citizens. Among the elements that enhance its value are the Hermitage of Sant Martí wave priory house. In these five years of closure, the works have focused on ensuring safety throughout the itinerary, as well as on the architectural and urban recovery of the Priory House and the hermitages, churches and paths in the area. In the new park, the restaurant has disappeared.
The works are already reaching their final phase, but the path has not been easy. In this sense, Echániz has stressed that, despite the fact that the pace of the work has not been fast, the priority of the provincial entity was “to guarantee a safe visit.”
The pandemic has been one of the factors that has slowed down work, as stressed by Teresa Planas, Director of Building Services and Logistics of the Provincial Council. The environment of the park, a fragile space due to geological and environmental conditions, has also played against the good pace of the works. “We have had two floods lately that have harmed us,” Planas pointed out.
Even so, when the enclosure opens, the works will continue for a few more months in the building of the monastery. This is because there are structures that must be remodeled, and some elements of the monastery -such as a roof, for example- will have to be changed, explained Echániz.
open to schools
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For his part, the director of Sant Miquel del Fai, Lluís Martínez Ujaldón, has influenced the importance of the estate for its “historical, cultural and architectural” value. In addition, he has expressed that the intention is that the space can be regularly visited by schools again as it was done before, and has advanced that the municipal schools may receive aid for the cost of transport. “We will offer an educational project, first with the schools closest to the municipality and then with the others, integrating them into the programs that have been going on for a long time since the Xarxa de Parcs” she stated.
This is one of the most ambitious projects of the Diputación de Barcelona. Since 2017, the entity has invested 5.4 million euros in the estate’s preservation and remodeling plan.