Fageda d'en Jordà

The fageda d'en Jordà – in English: the Jordà beech forest – is a natural reserve that includes a beech forest with unique characteristics in Spain, as it grows on relatively flat terrain, formed by a cooled lava flow from the volcano del Croscat, at an altitude that is not common in the Mediterranean area of the Iberian Peninsula for this type of forest, between 550 and 650 m. It has an area of about 4.8 km2 and its floor is made up of lava prominences that can reach more than 20 m in height, which are locally called tossols.



The beech forest is famous because the Catalan poet Joan Maragall wrote a well-known poem in its honor ("La fageda d'en Jordà"). At the main entrance to the beech forest, at kilometer 4 of the road from Olot to Santa Pau, where the Can Serra car park is located, there is a monolith in his honour. The use of motor vehicles is prohibited within the forest, however, there are several walking routes and you can rent a horse or an old horse-drawn carriage at kilometer 7 of the road from Olot to Santa Pau.

Location
La fageda d'en Jordà is located in the La Garrotxa region, about 5.5 km from Olot. It occupies part of the municipalities of Santa Pau, Olot and Las Presas and is part of the Garrocha Volcanic Zone natural park. The beech forest is surrounded by several of the 21 volcanoes in the Garrocha region. At one end of the forest is the Can Jordà farmhouse, which gives it its name, and which today is a Cultivated Plant Conservation Center. Its objective is the cultivation of fruit tree species close to extinction and varieties of plants that have gone into decline, such as some varieties of buckwheat. Within the forest is the La Fageda cooperative, dedicated to the production of dairy products and which employs mentally handicapped people.

Climate and vegetation
The Jordà fageda is made up almost entirely of medium and large beech trees on land that has not been plowed for many years, although you can still see the old paths of old agricultural and forestry farms. The beech (Fagus sylvatica) benefits from a generous climate, abundant in rain (900 to 1000 mm), cool, with a Mediterranean transition from humid mountain to Atlantic, facing slightly north, with a substrate of relatively recent reddish clays, andosols and other brown soils in which these trees grow easily.