The natural shelter of Els Polvorers is on the steep slope of the right bank of the Cardener river in Manresa, just beyond the Renfe train freight station and the old Campsa fuel tanks, between the Santa Caterina tower plateau and the river. The area is known as Els Polvorers (= gunpowder makers) because in this stretch and riverside there used to be gunpowder mills that operated under the control of the royal monopoly from the mid-16th to the mid-19th century. The textile factory that replaced them kept the name of Els Polvorers; therefore, avoiding the extinction of the toponym. The shelter is accessible through the path that connects La Guia with the path of Les Pedreres on Santa Caterina tower plateau and, just on the outside of the fence that closes the field of the old Campsa tanks, following a reopened turnoff through the ambushed terraces for roughly 50 meters. The natural shelter of Els Polvorers is an additional point of natural interest to the nature route M2 – The stream of Rajadell of the Anella Verda de Manresa (= green belt of Manresa).
The natural shelter of Els Polvorers measures 25-30 meters long, 2-5 meters deep and 3-5 meters high; it is a really long shelter. The slope of Els Polvorers is shady; thus, the shelter faces northeast. The inside of the shelter is dry. The roof is made by a thick, flat layer of sandstone above a thin layer of less consistent rock that erosion has hollowed out further inside. The wall of the shelter, near its northern end, has enigmatic sectioned cannonballs. Near its southern end, the wall of the shelter shows two specimens of Cerithium giganteum -the large Eocene marine snail with a conical, 50 cm length shell-, one in cross section and the other in longitudinal section (photo 3).
The shelter was partially built; an old stone wall covers a small stretch of the shelter that turns it in a troglodyte dwelling.
The layer of rock that constitutes the roof of the shelter of Els Polvorers can be seen from the opposite bank of the Cardener river, this is the area of Sant Pau and Fàbrica Blanca, though not the shelter itself that remains hidden by the dense vegetation that has grown in the shady slope of Els Polvorers subsequent to the abandon of olive tree crops.
[photos Florenci Vallès and Jordi Badia]