Resseguint l’empremta de Verdaguer a Osona
An excursion to Folgueroles and Vic to find out more about the life and work of the poet Jacint Verdaguer through the places where he lived and which now pay homage to him.
Folgueroles is between the Plana de Vic and Les Guilleries. It is the village where Jacint Verdaguer was born, one of the great poets of the Catalan Renaissance. The poet's influence can be seen in many places. The Verdaguer house-museum, for example, can be visited. This was the house where he lived as a child. It is located at number 7 of the Carrer Major. It was built in the 17th century but is decorated in the style of the mid-19th century. It shows what a country family's life was like in the poet's day and it introduces visitors to the life and times of the author of Canigó.
The museum organises guided tours for visitors around the places most closely associated with Verdaguer. They include biographical explanations and the reading of some of his verses and prose. The visits include the parish church of Santa Maria, where he was baptised, and a stroll through the town to the Damunt hermitage, which he mentions in his poem, L'arpa. As well as having a flower garden, which he mentions, the site commands impressive views over the Plana de Vic, while the Pedraforca mountain rises on the horizon and some peaks in the Pyrenees can also be seen. The visit ends in Folgueroles in its role as an open museum on account of the sculpture entitled Àlbula. It is inspired by the poem Què és la poesia (What is poetry?) and it represents a book with blank pages. It is the same as another one in the Verdaguer Museum in Vil·la Joana, in Vallvidrera, as a symbol uniting the places where he was born and where he died.
As well as Folgueroles, Vic, the capital of Osona, was also a very important place for Verdaguer. Here you can follow the 'Jacint Verdaguer in Vic' route, an initiative by the Vic Tourist Office and the Jacint Verdaguer Foundation with the collaboration of the MEV Museu d’Art Medieval. The route starts on the balcony of Vic Town Council with a view over the Plaça del Mercadal and Carrer Verdaguer and continues with a stroll through the old centre, pausing to contemplate locations that conjure to mind his student days. The route also pauses at the Asil dels Capellans, which evokes the most dramatic period in the life of Father Cinto, (as he became known), when some of his closest friends abandoned him. The excursion ends at the MEV which, as well as exhibiting exceptional artistic works from the medieval period, also has a display of various items associated with the poet.
