In the second half of the XIX century, Catalan landscape painting acquired an importance and personality previously unknown to this genre. Among the landscape artists of the moment were Josep Armet and Josep Berga, however it was Joaquim Vayreda who became the foremost Catalan landscape painter. In his work, the landscape took centre stage.
Vayreda was the founder of the Olot School of countryside painting, a movement characterised by the taste for painting from nature and directly inspired by the works of the French artists of Barbizon School. Their canvases, which enjoyed wide exposure and considerable success, influenced numerous Catalan landscape painters.
The Museu de la Garrotxa has an extensive collection of paintings by the Olot School, and the Museu dels Sants has a collection centred on one of Olot's traditional industries: religious imagery. And it is Olot's saints' workshops that make virtually all the religious sculptures that are found around the world. The museum shows the whole process of making these pieces and allows you to see, first hand, the inside of a workshop (on week days).
Olot School
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Routes and excursions TOP
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Industrial heritage
This route visits the factories, canals, chimneys and other relics that provide a reminder of the industrial past of La Garrotxa.
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Volcano Racó and el Parc Nou. Route 5 Olot
Once you leave the built-up centre of Olot it takes but a few minutes to reach the marshy woods of La Moixina. From here, you can walk through the beeches that form part of the final reaches of the forest of Fageda d’en Jordà
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Castellfollit-Begudà-Sant Joan les Fonts. Ruta 2 Garrotxa
This 20-km route is designed to be done in two stages. There are two starting points, one in the town of Castellfollit de la Roca and one in Sant Joan les Fonts.
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GR 11 - Cross-Pyrenean trail
This route follows the southern flank of the Pyrenees from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean. Difficult high-altitude sections give way to peaks, valleys, villages, forests and ridges in a varied landscape of great visual beauty.
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Volcanoes and historic centre of Sant Feliu de Pallerols
In the south of La Garrotxa, right in the heart of the Hostoles valley, is the municipality of Sant Feliu de Pallerols. The Brugent river, an affluent of the Ter, divides the area from where more than fifty springs flow.
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Molí dels Murris bathing pool. Route 4 Les Planes d'Hostoles
Les Planes d’Hostoles is well known for its natural bathing pools that have been used in numerous films and adverts. This is one of four suggestions.
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Sant Joan de les Abadesses to Vall de Bianya cycle path
Route between the Vall de Bianya greenway route and Sant Joan de les Abadesses.
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Les Bisaroques and Font de les Tries. Route 2 Olot
The Bisaroques volcano is the smallest of the four volcanoes in Olot. Along the way, we will see the black, brown and reddish colors of the volcanic soil.
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Vayreda’s Alta Garrotxa. Route 8 Garrotxa
Marian Vayreda’s novel La Punyalada provides one of the best ways of discovering the Alta Garrotxa. The places depicted by this 19th century author in the scenes from his famous novel have been joined in a discovery route.
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Olot and its volcanoes
Rediscover nature in the heart of the city. The urban layout of Olot is set around one of the most famous volcanoes: Montsacopa.