Amazon's new logistics center, opened in 2023 in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Figueres, has revolutionized the Alt Empordà. It is, by far, the largest company in the region, ahead of major companies such as the supermarkets of Antonio Escudero in La Jonquera or the food giant supermarkets of Antonio Escudero in La Jonquera or the food giant Transgourmet. Around 2,000 people work day and night, a volume that represents more than 1% of the entire population of all municipalities within a 40 km radius. And, logically, this correlation between workers and inhabitants, much higher than that of any large company in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, causes everything surrounding Amazon's business to have a direct impact on the day-to-day life of the region.

Empordà has been mythologized. It has been pampered. The media often talks about Cadaqués, Dalí, Josep Pla. Many people from Barcelona spend their summers there. The tramuntana is a wind with pedigree. Greco-Roman civilization reached us through Empúries: Manuel Brunet turned that beginning into the fable The marvelous landing of the Greeks in Ampurias. It is "the smiling plain" that Joan Maragall sang about in Enric Morera's sardana or the one that Jacint Verdaguer looked at from Mare de Déu del Mont to write the epic poem Canigó about the origins of the Catalan nation. The windy and rugged landscape of Alt Empordà and the abrupt and undulating landscape of Baix, with their small rural settlements, are a common theme in Catalan sentimentality, and the same can be said of the coves and beaches of the coast, which are so crowded.

Older people know it because it was a Marist Brothers seminary. Those born in the 80s and 90s know it because they went there for their first summer camps, sharpening tools and building huts like prehistoric people. And for the Catalan cultural scene, it has become, in the last eight years, an interdisciplinary meeting point. An intimate space where you can enjoy everything from performances by emerging groups, companies, and artists to shows by renowned musicians like Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Adrià Puntí, and the Vallès Symphony Orchestra.

Figueres was dubbed the Catalan Guernica because of the high number of deaths caused by fascist bombings during the Spanish Civil War. In the midst of one of the deadliest bombing raids, in Plaça del Gra, a nurse found little Elena crying desperately among the mutilated bodies and rubble. The girl threw herself into the nurse's arms as bombs continued to rain down on the civilian population. Elena was located years later in the French town of Fumel, where the nurse had taken her in, believing she had been orphaned. The little girl was able to return to her parents, but she could never forget the noise of the planes and bombs over the city, nor, of course, the nurse who had saved her and cared for her like a daughter. Like a nightmare, the drone of the aircraft was also forever etched in the memories of the protagonists of the six stories told in the play. Noise of airplanesWritten by Manel Puig, directed by Àngels Barrientos and Maria Rosa Oliveres, and performed by actors from two amateur theater companies, the play, consisting of six monologues—one for each of the six stories told—has been a great success in Castelló d'Empúries and Llançà, where every performance has sold out. It begins a tour of several towns in the Empordà region this January. According to Manel Puig, the play's success stems from the fact that "instead of focusing on the war at the front, soldiers against soldiers, it deals with the suffering of civilians on the home front," based on the experiences of six real people. Puig also maintains that presenting these experiences of the Spanish Civil War through theater allows "historical memory to reach the public more easily, especially young people."

The Catalan government's Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food has confirmed a new outbreak of contagious nodular dermatosis (CND) in unvaccinated pasture-raised cattle on a farm in Capmany, in the Alt Empordà region. In a statement released this Wednesday, the department explained that the farm had only received partial vaccinations, which "reinforces the crucial importance of vaccination" in controlling the disease. The farm has an extensive herd of approximately 106 animals, and four animals have been confirmed in the laboratory to be infected with the field strain of the virus and to be exhibiting clinical symptoms, according to sources in the livestock sector. Following the detection of these new cases, the health protocol has been activated, which includes the culling of the affected animals and the establishment of a 20-kilometer protection zone and a 30-kilometer surveillance zone. Furthermore, animals on farms in the affected area have been quarantined, and the restrictions will last 45 days after the last slaughter. The department has assured that 100% of the animals in the districts affected by the outbreak protection zones are vaccinated, and that in the other districts where vaccination has been authorized, the figure is 80%. It also indicated that the deadline for vaccination is January 31st, and that from that day forward, no movement of unvaccinated animals will be permitted.

The tramontana wind, bitterly cold this mid-November Monday, howls furiously through the narrow, steep streets of Cadaqués, deserted today, with closed doors and windows and drawn shutters on bars and restaurants, all displaying signs announcing extended holidays. Quietude, tranquility, and the only sound, the onslaught of the tramontana. This is the Cadaqués that the Japanese painter Shigeyoshi Koyama loves, the Cadaqués he so desperately misses during the summer, when the revelry and noise take over the town day and night, forcing him into exile in the quiet village of Vilanova de la Muga until September, when the summer visitors leave and Cadaqués returns.

In the heart of Alt Empordà, the municipality of Capmany is hosting an initiative that combines sustainability, inclusion, and social justice: Solar Impact - Energy with social valueThis project, funded by PERTE (National Electricity and Energy Management System) as part of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy's Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, and promoted by third-sector entities and job-integration companies, proposes a comprehensive solution to two structural challenges: access to housing and green energy.

Not only in the lands of Seasonal workers come to Lleida to work for a few months to harvest fruit.In Girona, during the apple harvest season, hundreds of foreigners also arrive to work in the fields of the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) of Manzana de Girona (Girona Apple) in the Baix and Alt Empordà regions. There are approximately 1,700 workers from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, who concentrate mainly in September and October, when activity is at its most intense. They join the 1,200 who are permanent employees year-round. Most arrive through the recruitment process at their country of origin, with a permit issued by the immigration office of the Spanish government sub-delegation. They often return from one year to the next, recruited by the farmers with whom they usually work.

"With her breasts exposed," literally and metaphorically, is how writer Núria Esponellà has experienced the breast cancer she was diagnosed with in October 2023. Literally because it has been demanded of her by mammograms, tactile examinations, radiotherapy sessions, radiotherapy sessions... because, as she explains, with the disease she has learned to value the essential things and, like someone throwing away their bra, to shed the armor and limiting and useless thoughts in order to feel free and love herself and her body, including her breasts marked by aging and the scars from the operation. With bare breasts It is also the title of her latest book, where the writer bears witness to the pain she has suffered, but also to the courage and positivity with which she has faced the illness.

There are days when you go out on your bike and everything flows. You leave Rustik, the cycling café and bakery in Bellcaire d'Empordà, head towards the sea, head out along dusty trails, swim in a hidden cove, suffer climbing a lonely hill, and end up crossing wetlands in silence. This route is exactly that: a long, intense, and wild adventure through the most authentic Empordà.

Nestled in the shelter of the Albera massif, a gently rolling area at the foot of the Mediterranean Pyrenees, lies the 8.5-hectare Mas Flaquer de Cantallops estate, dating back to the 18th century. Before the walls were erected, the century-old plane tree that shades actor and perfumer Ernesto Collado (Barcelona, ​​1974) and me as we chatted already stood by the Torrelles stream. It's listed as one of the four oldest in Spain, with 400 years of history. I could describe its bark, its majesty, its height, how one of the large fallen branches has been converted into a table... But for Collado, this plane tree is yet another example of the enormous biodiversity this estate harbors, making it unique for the new project that has turned it upside down. As I interview him, he explains how the scent of wild garlic, moonflower, and water mint reaches him. A decade ago, it would have been impossible. From one day to the next, he lost his sense of smell.

Two years ago the multinational Amazon inaugurated A huge 50,000 m² logistics facility in the Alt Empordà region. More than 1,500 people work day and night shifts, packaging and organizing orders for this online retail giant. The warehouse is located in the Logis Empordà industrial estate, south of Figueres, in a strategic cross-border location between Catalonia and France, where other logistics and transportation companies are concentrated. To further boost business opportunities in this industrial area, the Territory Department is working on drafting an urban master plan to expand the industrial estate by 166 new hectares and a 60-hectare intermodal freight station.

Around Christmas, the 800 inhabitants of the small town of Borrassà, near Figueres, received an alert from the City Council that forced them to change their habits completely from one day to the next: the tap water was no longer drinkable. They could no longer fill a glass at the sink at home to quench their thirst or use running water to cook. Two months later, the situation remains the same and the residents of this municipality in the high Empordà region have had to get used to regularly travelling by car to the supermarkets in Figueres to accumulate loads of jugs of bottled water to supply themselves.

Firefighters have controlled the fire in the Montgrí massif in the Baix Empordà that has been burning since last Thursday. The fire has burned 91 hectares of forest mass and until this Sunday it has not been controlled. The deputy inspector of the Fire Department, Antoni Valdepeñas, explains that they also hope to control the fire in Ventalló on Sunday (Alt Empordà), just 20 kilometers from the first and stabilised since Sunday morning, but where there are still hot spots that require firefighters to be vigilant, according to ACN.

New day of fighting against the fire that broke out yesterday between Llançà and Port de la Selva. After a very complicated night with a fire that has not given truce, firefighters continue working to extinguish the flames that have already burned between 400 and 500 hectares, as indicated by the head of the emergency region of Girona, Jordi Martin. With the light of day, planes and helicopters have returned to the scene. They are key to extinguishing the flames, as the whole area is difficult to access by land. Martin stressed that the goal of the day is not to reach the thousand hectares burned, although they will not have the best conditions: "Today there will be wind, high temperatures and low humidity".

The beginning of summer is a good time to take a look at the accumulated rainfall during the last months, which is an indicator of how dangerous the fire season can be. The variability of rainfall means that while some regions of Catalonia are in a normal situation or even favorable in terms of moisture conditions of forests, others are in conditions of extreme drought.