The Núria valley is one of the most iconic mountain destinations in Catalonia. A tourist complex around a basilica from the early 20th century, flanked by the Puigmal and the Capçaleres del Ter i del Freser Natural Park, at an altitude of 2,000 meters, which can only be reached by walking or by the rack railway. The station, managed by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), is a pioneer in sustainability thanks to the Ecovall project. During the first half of 2026, the station generated more than 908,000 kWh of geothermal energy thanks to the implementation of 126 wells 100 meters deep that heat the water for all the facilities. This new system has saved more than 100,000 liters of diesel and prevented the emission of 309 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Furthermore, the Núria station is the first FGC station in Catalonia open 365 days a year: it does not rely solely on the snow season, which is increasingly unpredictable due to climate change, but has reinvented itself by organizing all kinds of nature and hiking activities to attract the public throughout the year.

Marc Verdaguer is one of the regular names within Albert Serra's particular creative universe. A musician and member of the Banyoles-based group Molforts, he has worked on all of the filmmaker's soundtracks, from the embryonic Crespià (2003) to his latest work, Out of this world, still in the final editing phase. He has also signed the music for films by other directors, such as Alain Guiraudie, produced by Andergraun Films, and has collaborated on experimental and performative audiovisual proposals by artists such as Jordi Mitjà and Vagina Dentata. He has just premiered the film Seize moments de ma vie,at the Locarno Festival, an extravagant concert with the legendary actress Ingrid Caven and Molforts, recorded in Paris by Serra himself and which will be seen in Barcelona at the In-Edit Festival.

Ayahuasca is a beverage made from Amazonian plants, with very potent psychoactive and hallucinogenic effects. In the Western world, it is often associated with the consumption of psychedelic drugs, as it causes intense visions, alterations of consciousness, and all kinds of physical reactions, often adverse and dangerous. Its origin, however, has been linked for thousands of years to indigenous Amazonian peoples, who use it as traditional medicine in shamanic rituals, spiritual ceremonies, and processes of purging and healing. For these peoples, ayahuasca is not just a mere substance, but also represents the neuralgic center from which they articulate their entire relationship with life and nature. This ancestral aspect, linked to anthropology and biocultural sustainability, is what the World Ayahuasca Forum aims to reclaim, which, for the first time, is taking place at the Girona Congress Palace Auditorium from September 11th to 13th.

For the third consecutive year, Girona has been the setting for one of the decentralized demonstrations of September 11th and, once again, the event has brought together thousands of people. 15,000, according to the Assembly, and 11,000, according to the municipal police. More or less the same as last year. The march began at 5:14 PM at Plaça Catalunya, packed to the rafters, and slowly headed towards the La Copa esplanade, where speeches and musical performances took place and a giant screen connected with Barcelona. The entire day unfolded in a festive atmosphere, with families, retirees, and also a great many young people who came from all over the region. An essentially citizen-led mobilization, from civil society, without partisan proclamations, symbols of political parties, or media figures hogging the spotlight.The spirit (although less crowded) recalled that of the first years of the Procés demonstrations, before the most tense and convulsive moments. Shouts of "independence", the singing of Els Segadors, proclamations of "the streets will be ours" and "we want, we want independence". Also human towers (castellers), brass bands and songs by Lluís Llach, Txarango and l’Elèctrica Dharma. A kind of happy déjà-vu and a feeling of national celebration. Neither reproaches to politicians nor tension.There has also been no trace of the tensions with the pro-independence far-right of Aliança Catalana, which did mark the Diada in the capital. There was only a brief moment of tension when a group of teenagers leading the demonstration, wearing football shirts, with estelada flags on their backs and painted cheeks, began to shout "Sílvia Orriols is the solution". They did so timidly and quickly gave up, but the chant caused a citizen passing by, outside the demonstration, to confront them and, then, an adult from the demonstration wanted to retaliate. The situation, however, did not escalate: they were separated and the rest of the young people there responded with anti-fascist slogans.Without the prominence of politicians or well-known faces

The festive and civic tone of the demonstration continued on the Copa stage. In fact, the speeches were delivered by anonymous people: two pro-independence activists, a veteran, and a young woman, in line with the "present and future" slogan of the rally. "Catalonia is experiencing a moment of unrest. Strained public services, healthcare with unacceptable waiting lists, education without resources, trains that leave us stranded, and impossible housing prices, neglected farmers, and precarious working conditions. These are not isolated problems; they are part of the same reality, a Catalonia that does not have all the resources or all the decision-making capacity to govern itself," they said.The day ended with the concert by Akoblats, a group performing lively covers of Catalan songs, a drinks bar, and food stalls. The younger audience stayed until the end and had a great time.

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From mid-August to the end of September is the optimal season for figs, one of the most delicious fruits in the Mediterranean. On its own, the fig is excellent: tasty, sweet, creamy and with the soft crunch of the tiny seeds inside. But, in the kitchen, combined with other ingredients, it yields great results and has a lot of recipe possibilities. For this reason, this month of September, from Monday the 7th to Sunday the 20th, fifteen restaurants in Figueres and the Alt Empordà are offering on their menu all kinds of dishes with this seasonal product as the protagonist. It is the gastronomic campaign Enfiga't, organized by the Figueres City Council, La Cuina del Vent and the local commerce association, which is repeated every year around these dates with the aim of promoting the fig, typical of the area, which gives the Alt Empordà capital its name since the time of the Romans.

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A little over a year ago, Joan Carles and Roser moved into their new, newly built house, on the edge of Sant Gregori heading towards the forests of the Llémena valley. Around the same time, the home, designed by architects Josep Camps and Olga Felip, received a special mention at the Girona Region Architecture Awards from the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC). The house, named 012, is truly spectacular. From the street, the four-sided facade catches the eye, made of off-white metal sheets with oblique finishes, creating a very clean and contemporary image.

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After the summer lull, the cultural season begins in the Girona regions with a brand new edition of the Temporada Alta festival, the 35th, which will be held from October 3 to December 8. The theatrical autumn in Girona and Salt will feature 91 shows, 131 performances, 21 co-productions, and 22 premieres, four of which will be firsts world. The opening ceremony will be Has been, on the subject of growing up in the performing arts world. It is a premiere in the State that will bring together for the first time the languages of the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and of circus and movement artist Martin Zimmermann.

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This summer, on the counters of Catalan fishmongers, one of the most prized fish of this time of year is missing. It is the sonso, a very small fish, about 10 centimeters long, which is fished from the end of winter until autumn. This year, however, the 26 boats of Catalan sonso fishermen have barely found any catches and, in the last week of June, they already declared the season over. They have moored the boats because it was not profitable to set sail every morning and they hope to resume activity next year, expecting the situation to improve.

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In early June, when the heat arrives, shepherd Víctor Rojas Orcalla undertakes a long walking route from Cap de Creus to Alta Garrotxa, guiding a flock of nearly 700 sheep along the traditional transhumance paths. He takes them to the green meadows below Comanegra, the peak of Les Bruixes, and the Sant Marc pass, where they stay all summer, sheltered from the high temperatures. The shepherd cares for them in the mountains for three or four months, in the company of nine dogs, and spends most nights in a small, well-equipped modular hut at the base of the summit. Further down, in the village of Rocabruna, Rojas also has a room at the Bocabartella farmhouse where the caretakers welcome him whenever he needs it.

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The August nights at the Vilabertran Schubertiad are always a guarantee of quality and excellence. Even more so when the program features baritone Andrè Schuen, one of today's great lied specialists, a fixture in the Empordà festival's programming since his debut there in 2018. This year he starred in a particularly brilliant and original recital alongside his usual pianist, Daniel Heide, and the Terrassa-born actor Pere Arquillué, who acted as narrator.

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In a context where the housing market is more strained than ever, any alternative that provides solutions to the housing emergency, however imaginative, is good news. This is the direction in which Sostre Cívic works, which advocates for cooperative housing: apartment blocks where residents, members of the cooperative, are neither owners nor tenants, but enjoy an indefinite right of use cession, with collective self-management and fees set at cost price, outside the speculative logic of the real estate business, with no possibility of purchase or resale.

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The soprano Jeanine De Bique (Trinidad and Tobago, 1981) is one of the most relevant and interesting singers of her generation. An interpreter with a sweet, luminous, and versatile voice, she has established herself as an accredited specialist in the baroque repertoire of Handel and the classicism of Mozart, while also delving with solvency into the romanticism of Verdi, Puccini, or the challenges of contemporary music. Born on a Caribbean island, far from the great capitals of classical music, she trained in New York, Vienna, and Switzerland and has already sung in the best theaters around the world. This Sunday, August 16, she will perform at the Festival de Torroella de Montgrí, alongside the Freiburger Barockorchester, under the direction of Éva Borhi, with a program dedicated entirely to Mozart.

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The Dutch filmmaker Frank Scheffer (1956) is one of the leading names in contemporary music documentary, with a career spanning over four decades dedicated to exploring the relationship between music, the arts, and audiovisual creation. In his more than sixty works, he has portrayed figures such as Frank Zappa, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian Eno, and Pierre Boulez, always from an introspective and experimental perspective that moves away from the explanatory forms of traditional documentary. This August, the music and film programming of In-Edit Empordà, within the Festival of Torroella de Montgrí, dedicates a retrospective to him which closes on Wednesday the 12th with Half moon, a work that addresses war, exile, and friendship through the music of Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh. The screening will be preceded by a concert by Azmeh himself and followed by a discussion with the director.

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The last weekend of the 40th edition of the Peralada Festival offered a high-level opera and zarzuela recital, starring American tenor Michael Spyres and Catalan soprano Sara Blanch, accompanied on piano by Giulio Zappa.

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The panoramic view of the Castellfollit de la Roca cliff is one of the most beautiful and iconic postcards of Catalonia. A whole village suspended on a basalt rock, with a church and a row of houses settled on the edge of a fifty-meter precipice that drops sharply to the Fluvià river. Approximately 350 residents live on the cornice of this cliff, naturally formed by several lava flows more than 350,000 years ago, more than a third of the inhabitants of this small municipality in La Garrotxa.

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The until now mayoral candidate of ERC in Girona, Marc Puigtió, has renounced this Thursday to be the republicans' candidate for the city. He renounces it one day after the party leadership opened an informational file on him following the leak of some audios in which he was heard projecting the disposal of the local leadership and the current councilors. Puigtió has justified the decision by "dignity and responsibility" and has acknowledged having made "a serious mistake," for which he assumes the consequences. Now, according to consulted sources from the republicans in Girona, the party will have to re-convene primaries to choose its candidate for mayor of the city. So far, however, they have not set a schedule.

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"My intention was to kick them all out and keep Esquerra. And then, to be able to use their electoral resources". This is one of the phrases that Marc Puigtió, ERC candidate for mayor in Girona, utters in a conversation with a young man linked to Vox, responsible for the Instagram profile Girona Perduda, which spreads disinformation and messages of insecurity in the city. The young man secretly recorded the conversation and has made it public on social media in recent hours. Following this leak, the party has opened an informational file to gather all the information and make a decision. Specifically, the ERC ethics committee met this Tuesday afternoon to open the file and "determine, if applicable, the corresponding responsibilities", they point out from the party, adding that they will not make any further statements on the case until the file is closed.

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For more than 15 days, cinema floods the facilities and theaters of the Cerdanya Pyrenees towns, thanks to the 17th Cerdanya Film Festival, which kicked off on July 29 and for the first time extends until the end of August. With 250 screenings and activities spread across Puigcerdà, Prullans, Montellà i Martinet, Alp, and Bolvir, the festival reinforces its role as a major cross-border meeting point for the audiovisual sector and consolidates a formula that combines highly interesting screenings, open to the public, with workshops and meetings for professionals.

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On the national road that divides the town of Bàscara (Alt Empordà) in half, coming from Girona, on the right-hand side stands a majestic three-story house, with a large façade in blue and ochre tones, presided over by a very unique sundial. It is Can Gustà, the residence and studio of the Girona artist Ignasi Esteve, who in recent years has turned his home into a true total work of art.

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Modest Cuixart, a founding member of the legendary Dau al Set group, is one of the key figures of the Catalan avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century. Often overshadowed by names like Joan Brossa or Antoni Tàpies, his contribution is equally decisive in the renewal of post-war plastic language. Born in Barcelona in 1925, but settled in Palafrugell since 1970, he developed a large part of his creative career surrounded and inspired by the landscapes of Empordà. This summer, coinciding with the centenary of his birth, the Espai Carmen Thyssen in the monastery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols dedicates the exhibition "Links, organized in collaboration with the Cuixart Foundation, which can be visited until October 18.

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