Water, wild mountains, caves... the Fai has attracted man through centuries for the singularity and its excellent situation for the defense of the valley.
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Natural Site Sant Miquel del Fai
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Thousand years of history: origins
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The history of the Fai goes back to the Neolithic. Many signs have been found indicating that the area was inhabited by small Iberian villages. Along with some documents of the Roman times, related to the Bigues and Riells towns, the first concrete reference to the Fai is dated in the 887. It is a document that explicitly mentions the Romanesque hermitage of Sant Martí, which seemed to have had a great importance in the area up to the IVth Century. But people from the country houses around started to move out and the hermitage lost its importance compared to the Sant Miquel Church, beneath the grotto.
The monastery
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References to this small church can be traced back in the year 997. It is believed that it could have been a place for pagan worship long before becoming a church. Although they don't know exactly when it was built, it is the most important troglodytic church of its type and the best preserved of the whole country.
It was precisely in 997 when the Counts of Barcelona donated the Lord Gombau de Besora part of the area where the Sant Miquel church was placed and a bit of the Fai land so he could build a monastery. The Lord of Besora was a great devout of the peculiar church emerged from Nature and dedicated part of his life to make it one of the most important monasteries throughout the County and of the Catalan Crown.
Splendour
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For some small signs it is believed that the primitive monks house was located near the chapel, oriented toward the waterfalls of the Tenes river.
In 1006 the church was devoted and Gombau donated a considerable amount so the construction of the building that was to hold the Monastery in front of the grotto could be started. But the one that is known as the Priory House wasn't built until the beginnings of the XVth Century.
During these first years, Gombau himself, the Counts of Barcelona and other feudal landlords donated lands to increase the importance of the monastery. Anyway, it was still a small monastery, the number of the monks wouldn't even sum up 10.
Worried about its survival, and specially thinking of the moment of his death, Gombau donated the Fai monastery to the well-known provençal monastery of Sant Victor de Marsella. This fact happened in the year 1,042 and during the following years, the priory house of the Fai was kept due to the support and the surveillance of the main abbey.
Decadence
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But Marseille started to loose importance inside the Church, and in 1567, the Pope declared the Fai to be in ward by the Girona Cathedral, period when the Bridge over the Rossinyol was built, as well as the Foradada path, because up to that moment you could only reach there following a difficult path with stairs known as the Sant Miquel Stairs.
With the pass of time, fewer monks were left and in the year 1832 the Fai priorate was abolished. Since that moment on and up to 1935, the Riells priests continue worshiping in some celebrations, especially in summer.
Regarding the Priory House, the last years it was a hostel. Although the pass of time and the fact that it was a hostel, the building maintains its original disposition, and it is one of the most beautiful Gothic buildings that are fully preserved in Catalonia.