Bernat Lanau, 47, and his mother, Àngela Farré, 85, are the only two residents of Avellanos, one of the 18 population centers that make up the municipality of Sarroca de Bellera (Pallars Jussà), with more than 80% of their homes converted into second homes. “I live in the highest part of Avellanos and my mother, in the lower part; Of the twelve houses standing, only ours are inhabited all year round,” says Bernat, builder and rancher, one Friday afternoon, on the terrace of the only bar in Sarroca, El Racó de Xerallo, which is open on weekends and the summer months.
The explanation for the very low percentage of first residences, only 18.3% of the total, must be sought mainly in Xerallo, where in 1950 a cement plant belonging to the Enher company started up destined to produce this material for the construction of reservoirs in the Pyrenees. Xerallo enjoyed its golden age until 1973 when the factory ceased operations. In 1955, the large area of Sarroca de Bellera had 1,307 inhabitants. Those of Xerallo, with around 400, boasted a school, casino, theater, food stores, a dining room, health care and bars. Now, the entire municipality registers 113 registered residents, although only about 40 reside permanently in this Pallars Jussà destination, according to its mayor, Marta Moyes.
“Enher built a colony with 119 homes to house the workers and the few buildings in the old town were demolished. When the cement factory closed, people marched. Now only about ten people live in Xerallo, but in August it fills up, there is a lot of atmosphere, we can reach 400, maybe 500,” adds Moyes.
In autumn or winter, the image of the lonely streets of Xerallo, with the silhouette of the abandoned feverish complex, is only broken on some weekends and festive days. Jose, in charge of the Racó de Xerallo, raises the blinds on Fridays or Saturdays to serve people from Lleida, Barcelona and other towns who want to spend a couple of days in the mountains. Jose combines the management of this place with beekeeping and ski lessons in the Vall de Boí, where he comes from.
The geographer Albert Guijarro is the author, together with Eva Perisé, of La cimentera de “The workers came mainly from Andalusia and when the factory was closed, Enher raffled off the houses in the neighborhood among all the company's employees, not just those of Xerallo. A great-uncle of mine had one and since then members of my family have spent vacation periods there. Now, many of the owners are descendants of the factory workers, although some sold them to them,” explains Guijarro from Barcelona. “I have lived in Xerallo in winter and it is a ghost town, but in summer it fills up,” he adds.
Idescat statistics indicate that 81.7% of the properties in Sarroca are not dedicated to primary housing. But this percentage is surely higher in Xerallo.
Only in Buira, another of the 18 nuclei that make up Sarroca, is there a restaurant, as well as a rural hotel and a horse-riding center, Casa Masover. Of the total of 290 houses in the municipality, 237 are non-main residences, according to Idescat. On the other hand, the supply of first residences is scarce.
“Young people get married and go to live abroad, to La Pobla de Segur, Tremp or Sort, where they have services and schools for their children, but they come up here every day to take care of the animals. The main economic sector is livestock, we have farms of cows, sheep, horses and also pigs. Some complement it with the rental of apartments,” explains Moyes, who has dedicated himself to tourism in hotels on the Costa Brava and Andorra. She has also made her first steps as an entrepreneur with a workshop where sausages are made, in Sentís, another of the towns in Sarroca.
“Having so many nuclei, 18, two of which are uninhabited, makes everything more difficult. We must distribute the money to fix the communication routes; put meshes to stop rockfalls on the roads, a small piece each year depending on the budget; pay the company that provides maintenance services because we don't have a municipal brigade...”, indicates the mayor. Some tracks, such as the one that leads to Sas, are still unpaved, others are in a very precarious state. “We do not ask for subsidies to have swimming pools but to keep basic services up to date,” she adds.
The towns of Sarroca, the head of the municipality, Les Esglésies and Xerallo are those with the most permanent residents, between ten and twelve each, while in many others only one family lives, Moyes specifies.
Àngela and her son, Bernat, with whom we began this chronicle, are the only ones in Avellanos, but they claim not to feel alone. Àngela is a determined woman with a fascinating life. At 18 she went alone to France to look for her father, whom she did not know, since he had fled from her when she was two months old, in the middle of the civil war. “I met him again near Strasbourg. He was a Republican and survived as a refugee. Within a month I already spoke French, I also learned English and worked as a nurse in a maternity hospital in Nancy. When I turned 30, I returned, got married and had two children, whom I had to raise alone. I liked to learn and know how to do everything, and I ended up taking care of my uncle's sheep. I have never felt loneliness, now I take care of the garden, the chickens, I go out for a walk every day, I still drive and connect to the Internet with my cell phone,” she comments with vitality and optimism.
