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The month of April is over and May has begun in the most generous way, with rain in a Catalonia in need of water after so many months of drought.
Under a cloudy sky, I have captured these photographs for La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos, where we can also hear what a flock sounds like in the video images I have taken around the Puig-agut sanctuary, in Manlleu, Osona region. .
The most characteristic sound of the herds is associated with the cowbell (squell or picarol), a bell tied around the neck of the cattle that are allowed to graze freely, as in this field of Manlleu.
In this way, the sheep do not wander away without the shepherd being able to hear them. The oldest mention of a cowbell is in a 14th century German document.
The Puig-agut sanctuary was the first temple of its kind in Spain to be dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Its construction was promoted at the end of the 19th century by Ramón Madirolas y Codina, an innovative farmer who promoted it from the Faro de Puig-agut magazine. The direction of the work was carried out by the architect August Font y Carreras, who used a neo-Gothic style with some Romanesque and even neoclassical facets, inspired by the French basilica of Tarbes.
