Gerri de la Sal

Around 1890, the geographer Pascual Madoz wrote an entry on Gerri de la Sal in his geographical dictionary. The town sat on the right bank of the Noguera Pallaresa, sheltered by two high mountains but exposed to north and easterly winds. The climate was temperate, though Madoz noted a tendency toward strokes among the population.

At that time the town had around 90 houses of modest construction, a town hall with a prison, and a school attended by about sixty children. The parish church, dedicated to the martyr Sant Fèlix, occupied what had once been a Benedictine monastery, with the Enseu mountain and the Monestir rock rising above it. A wooden bridge and a tree-lined path connected the town to the old monastery building.

The most important structure in town was the salt warehouse and administration building. A saltwater spring just outside the town gates fed the salt works, which produced enough salt to export as far as France. This industry was the economic heart of Gerri.

The surrounding land was generally rocky and mountainous, giving limited agricultural yields. Farmers grew wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, vegetables, hemp, and almonds, along with various fruits. Vineyards had once been significant but were wiped out by severe frosts in 1829 and 1830. Sheep and mules were raised, and the rivers offered trout, barbel, and eel, while hares, partridge, and migratory birds were hunted on the hillsides.

The town recorded 86 householders and a total population of 519 people.

The old salt warehouse, known as the Alfolí or Casa de la Sal, still stands within the town. The Benedictine monastery church of Santa Maria de Gerri preserves a Romanesque image of the Virgin Mary. Nearby sits the hermitage of the Mare de Déu d'Arboló, on the boundary of the former municipal territories of Gerri and Arcalís.

There is also a former grain mill that doubled as a small hydroelectric station, once supplying electricity to Gerri and to the surrounding villages of Enseu, Baén, Bresca, Masies de Llaràs, Pujol, Canals, Peracalç, Useu, and El Comte.