History of the Sierra de Guara

Cave paintings, dolmens, medieval hermitages, landscapes shaped by men, in the Sierra de Guara evidence is found everywhere that humans have been dwelling on this site for ages.

From 1950 to 1965, the Sierra de Guara had been particularly hit by rural depopulaton. Today Nineteen abandoned villages can be found there. Because of the climate, the traditional economy was mainly pastoral and oriented towards sheep breeding and subsistence crops. Very few flocks of ewes can be found there nowadays, however vineyards and small farming still exist, as minor activities, producing cereals, wine and crops of almonds and olives.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Lucien Briet, a young French photographer undertook the discovery of the Sierra de Guara. Yet, in spite of the numerous photoreportages he made, the Sierra remained forgotten and cut off from the rest of the world for decades.

In the 1960s French speleologists potholers and spelunkers were again attracted to the region. Among them was Pierre Minviele, author of of the first guide book about the Sierra de Guara.

A few years later, in 1975, some pyrenean courier guides fell in love with this unexplored paradise, equipped with small inflatable boats, they explored the rivers nestled into the hollows of the limestone faults. A new activity called canyon descent or canyoning (canyoneering) was then born.

Today the Sierra de Guara has become the « Mecca » of canyoning thanks to the passion and justified craze of the growing number of its enthusiasts who put a new lease of life to this widely deserted region. Thus they are both participating to a new economy linked to the touristic development, and preserving its "wild" and authentic characteristics.