The Roca Foradada of Montserrat is the largest and the best-known bored rock in Central Catalonia, although it is not the only one. There is also the Foradada del Ginebral on the northern tip of the Ginebral mountain range, between the farmhouse of El Ginebral and the pass of Gipó that the old Royal Road from Manresa to Terrassa crosses, and next to the western boundary of Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac natural park. The location is in the municipality of Rellinars (Vallès Occidental), close to that ofSant Vicenç de Castellet (Bages). There are several foradades more within the area of natural park of Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac, amongst them L’Hospital de Sang (= the Hospital of Blood).
The Foradada del Ginebral is a window that pierces the ridge at its narrowest point. It is made of conglomerate rock as the Roca Foradada de Montserrat, but its size is modest: roughly 1,5 meters high by 1,2 meters wide. The Foradada del Ginebral originated from the erosion of its base, whose conglomerate has a higher clay content and is therefore less firmly grounded than that of the upper part; it is not, as a casual observer might assume, the happy result of a rockfall, even less being already on the ridge. Sooner or later, the erosion of the column that makes the base will lead to the collapse of the rock blocks on top, and El Ginebral will lose its curious hollowed rock that nowadays is seen.
[photo Florenci Vallès and Jordi Badia]