An American in the paradise of Montjoi

RosesLife takes many turns. Larry Williams, 66, a successful builder from Vermont, is the new master of the Montjoi de Baix farmhouse and this entire small valley located on the southern slope of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, within the municipality of Roses. A rural paradise right by the sea. A place occupied by men and women since time immemorial, rich in flora and fauna and rich, too, in stories more legendary than documented which are now, however, becoming real. It is, furthermore, the corner of the coast where Ferran Adrià performed the culinary miracle of El Bulli.

How did the wealthy American Larry Williams end up in this corner of the world? What has he found there? Both answers are loaded with memory and surprises.  

Larry Williams' mother, who died in the United States in 1992, was Berta Pi-Sunyer Diaz, daughter of Jaume Pi-Sunyer Bayo and granddaughter of August Pi i Sunyer, two eminent doctors. The Pi-Sunyer saga, originating from Roses, has produced illustrious names in medicine and politics, among them August's brother, Carles, who was a minister, councillor, and mayor of Barcelona. The tragic republican exile scattered them all across the Americas: Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, the United States... The affection for the land of origin was maintained. Over the years, some descendants returned. Others did not, but they have often inherited the family nostalgia.

This is the case of Larry, to whom his mother always transmitted the passion for Roses. A mythologized land that he now wants to make his own again. The fact of not speaking Catalan or Spanish has not prevented this intimate, blood connection. In 2020, he asked a cousin, Joana Burgués Pi-Sunyer, who resides in Roses, to help him look for an old house in this Alt Empordà town. A farmhouse to renovate with sea views. It was not easy.

Finally, they decided on the most difficult and promising project: the Montjoi de Baix farmhouse, from the 13th century, abandoned in 1961 by the last tenant farmers. It was in a ruined state. Its emblematic 17th-century tower, twenty meters high, had fallen in 2011 –it has now been rebuilt–. Other people had tried to buy it before, but the sine qua non condition that the owners, the Casabosch Thos, always set, related since the 19th century to the Coll de Roses (the most emblematic farmhouse in the town), was that it had to be acquired with all the land, that is to say, with the whole valley: 95 hectares. This deterred, among others, Ferran Adrià himself. The fact that it is located within the natural park also made any future intervention difficult.

Larry Williams Pi-Sunyer fell in love with the place and managed in extremis to stop the sale to a German investment fund. That rural farmhouse with views of the deep blue sea of the bay had to be his. Surrounded by olive trees, almond trees, fig trees, hackberry trees, holm oaks, oaks, chestnut trees, and lemon trees, it has abundant fresh drinking water and a rich faunal diversity. The purchase was not finalized until May 2023, after two years of arduous negotiations to secure all the rehabilitation permits in accordance with the Natural Park, the Roses City Council, and the different instances of the Generalitat. It was a complex process with a happy ending. Very happy. Now you will see why.

The sum of enthusiasm, patience, and perseverance worked the miracle. Also the good disposition of the administrations in the face of an exceptional bet on public-private collaboration. Larry is not a capricious and insensitive tycoon. On the contrary. The day he obtained Spanish nationality and saw how his Catalan second surname from his ancestors in Roses was recognized, "he burst into tears," recalls Joana. With his wife, Leslie, they often come from the United States to personally follow up on the project and intend to settle there to live for six months of the year. Permanently, there will be caretakers who will take charge of the maintenance of the house and the land. They will have a separate dwelling, where the old silos of the farmhouse used to be. There are already candidates. A few months ago, Larry and Leslie stopped by the ARA and invited me to visit Montjoi. This summer I have finally been able to respond to the kind offer.

With Joana Burgués as global project manager and Clara Solà-Morales as architect –the Solà-Morales are another relevant dynasty, in this case of architects with roots in Olot–, Larry feels he is in good hands. He has placed his full trust in them. Of course, he has construction experience. From the beginning he knew well what he wanted. He wanted –wants– a project respectful of the architectural and natural heritage. He wanted his mother to have been proud of it. He wanted to flee from tourist voracity. What he could not imagine was what he would find beyond the already fabulous initial evidence.

A surprising archaeological find

The surprise came in the summer of 2024, with the reconstruction works of the farmhouse already underway. The mandatory archaeological intervention, led by Marcel Pujol, had not yielded any results, even though the scarce historiography spoke of the existence in the area of the ancient monastery of Magrígul, which was completely lost. Nothing had appeared in the foundations and immediate surroundings of the house. But while redoing the old canal that brings fresh water to the house from a natural spring, in a nearby space where a logistical intervention was to be carried out, the archaeologist Xavier Aguelo, from Marcel Pujol's team, detected some stones that perhaps, a perhaps very faint, seemed to be part of a possible ancient archway.

“We were in the final phase of that section of work and I gave him four days, just four,” recalls Joana. Xavier Aguelo worked day and night until the entire structure of a Visigothic church appeared, unearthed after centuries of oblivion, in a good state of conservation, including several burials, the oldest of which dates back to the 7th century AD. The impact was fabulous and gave rise to new research. The monastery had to be found, which had to be nearby. Indeed, at the end of 2025, the remains were located. Once again, an exceptional find. It had been years since such an ancient religious complex in such good condition had appeared in Catalonia.

A double prize for the archaeologists, without a doubt, but also for a Larry who could not believe what was happening to him: not only had he acquired a rural estate that connected him with his family past, but he was also helping to unearth a precious piece of the history of Roman and medieval Catalonia. Because traces have been found at the foundations of the two buildings –pavements and other signs– from the imperial era, probably of a villa. It makes perfect sense, considering that the Roman colonization of the Peninsula began in Empúries and Roses.

Overall, for the moment, ten burials from the early medieval and Roman periods have been located in the Montjoi valley, five of which are undergoing DNA testing in Paris to obtain more information about kinship, causes of death, and diet. The results will be available in November. Furthermore, it is believed that a third church and possible habitat structures must exist, as it is estimated that at its peak (9th to 12th centuries), between 100 and 120 people must have lived in this dynamic past of the Montjoi valley. People, especially relevant citizens, only have themselves buried where they consider their memory will endure. Montjoi, therefore, must have been a consolidated religious and emblematic center. The team of three archaeologists continuing to work there also does not rule out finding megalithic remains.

But the value of the place is not only human and historical, it is also natural. According to the Cap de Creus Natural Park, there is currently a team of ornithologists monitoring bird migrations there. The area is very rich in species: on the day of the visit to write this report, they had ringed, among others, a great tit, a Sardinian warbler –which was accumulating fat in its belly to be able to fly to Africa– and a showy hoopoe. The work of the naturalists has also included the location of an endemic newt: it can be seen in the historical pond, which has been recovered. The landscape and natural restoration of the valley is a fundamental part of the project, with a lot of work to be done.

Little by little, away from the tourist bustle of the coast's front line, the Montjoi valley is beginning to recover its rural and historical pulse at the hands of a Pi-Sunyer who came from the Americas, on the eve of the centenary of his ancestors' tragic flight.