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THIRTY WOLVES RAVINE (Southern edge of the municipal district of Sant Martí
Sarroca where it borders with the municipality of La Juncosa del Montmell)

By Agustí Salvà, taken from the Chronicles of the Parish Archives

Our documentary archives never cease to surprise us; whether it be a question of
species of animals now extinct, or places recorded in history that today no-one remembers
or talks about, not even the most well-informed family members. I’d like to describe an
event that is completely forgotten nowadays.
The municipal district of Sant Martí borders with that of La Juncosa del Montmell to
the south and south-west; with Castellví de la Marca on the south side and Torrelles de
Foix on the south-west and west.
To retell this story we have to go back to the 19th century, to the years 1800 to 1833.
In the years previous to Napoleon’s army entering Catalan territory, the districts bordering
the mountain range of Montmell as far as the Pujol de Samuntà, (in other words, to the
edge of our municipal district) were already well-aquainted with the influence of the
French, an influence which would be decisive historically in the next few years. The all-
powerful French Empire had set its eyes on the province of Girona, in retaliation for the
uprisings. Catalunya was worried that once more it would be forgotten in central Europe,
as it was at the time of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. News of this and similar events had
already travelled as far as the Penedès, like all the places near the thoroughfare of the
ancient Via Augusta, a connecting route for conquests and battles since time immemorial.
Around the year 1808, Napoleonic France invaded various nations yet again. In the
Penedès, on the edge of the district of l'Arboç del Penedès, the French cavalry and
artillery came up against resistance from local armed groups. Everyone in l'Arboç is
familiar with the street “8 de Juny de 1808” (8th June 1808), named for the events that took
place in the days following that bloody date, when the French saw their military
advantages being undermined by local militias on various occasions.
What happened around the time of this defeat at the hands of the Spanish will be
described later. In the days following, the French cavalry, or what was left of it, began the
retreat, some towards the forests of Castellet, others to find strongholds in farmhouses
near Castellví or in the mountains beyond. By doing this in the next days and months the
French troops would regain control over the rest of the Penedès province.
For the moment, the French rearguard had to be taken care of; with both walking
wounded and the severely mutilated, this was a serious headache. But the main problem
for both sides at this point was the wolves, because the blood from sword cuts, bayonet
wounds and field tourniquets left a horrible evil-smelling trail. Moreover, the chances of
desertion were very small: you would be stopped by the local armed forces or by the
starving wolves. There was no choice. Wolves can smell the blood of a human being from
a considerable distance.
In this kind of situation, when a man flees across open country, desperate, almost
completely unarmed and with little strength, wolves will approach a mortally wounded man
with no hesitation. Here we have to bear in mind that for logical reasons, it was impossible
to set up field hospitals, as the French army had difficulty in getting reinforcements. In this
situation the only option was to take up positions in villages or hamlets where they already
had artillery stored, whether it be their own, or captured from the Spanish army. (In fact
even the Basílica of Santa Maria was used for storing artillery, after being sacked, of

course.) It was of supreme importance to have strongholds in places which were more or
less fortified.
The wolves didn’t approach places where humans had total control. But what about
the forest? In the forest, when the countrymen found in the undergrowth the blue tunics of
the French soldiers, ripped almost to shreds or with the sleeves missing, but with no
human remains inside, “it can’t be helped”!!!..., they would say, because someone had
already taken care of that “unfortunate” body, deserter or not. The wolves were on the
lookout for mortally wounded soldiers who had taken cover or been left in charcoal ovens,
both active and in disuse. As they lay dying, they were surprised by the jaws of the wolf. In
fact, for many years after, the people of the hamlets, farmhouses and villages of the Baix
and Alt Penedès had a saying: “better to fall into the jaws of the wolf than into the hands
of the French”.
Here it has to be explained that the cruelty of the French troops was notorious.
Since the time of the invasion of the areas of l'Empordà, la Garrotxa, l'Osona and l'Anoia,
news of the treatment of the civil population, and especially women, had spread like
wildfire and the hatred for the “Frogs” had provided the words for well-known popular
songs.
In the following years, which saw the expulsion of the Napoleonic troops, the loss of
the American colonies and the decadence of the Spanish feudal structure, the problem of
the wolves still persisted. The community of Iberian wolves, or at least that of the Catalan
coastal area, according to those who have studied the species, began to see their habitat
threatened.
But the problem had really begun after the abolition of the maritime blockade,
decreed by the Spanish monarchy in the territory of the Catalan Principality, as from 1763.
In particular, the lifting of this blockade meant that mercantile commerce could be begun
from the main Catalan seaports, especially to and from the Caribbean Sea. The demands
of the overseas markets led to the revival of the timber trade for shipbuilding, the
penetration of cultivation as far as the moors and hillsides and the transformation of these
areas into vineyards. This obviously had a major effect on the communities of wolves,
previously lords and masters of the wildernesses and forests which had remained
untouched till then.
Now, we have to move on to around the year 1831 for the climax of our story. It
was clear that the wolf packs, already separated into smaller groups, had been displaced
from their respective “ghettos”. The inhabitants of the wooded slopes on the edges of the
hills of Montmell, La Talaia de Marmellar, and Castellví; from all along the river of
Marmellar up to Les Cases Noves de la Riera, La Torre d'en Vernet, Les Conilleres and
those who lived in the mountains beyond, as far as Roca Vidal, to name but a few places,
petitioned the Quadra de Vilafranca, the administrative area to which these places
belonged. Don’t forget that the municipalities of Sant Martí, Torrelles de Foix and Pontons
on the one hand; and also Castellví de la Marca and La Juncosa del Montmell belonged to
the Provínce of Tarragona.
The mayors of these municipal areas were called to a meeting, in order to draw up
a plan of “total annihilation” of the last remaining wolf packs. Once permisssion for this
atrocity had been given by the Provincial Government in Tarragona, searches for wolves
were begun by area, followed by culling to prevent further increase of the species. This
process continued over the winters and summers of the next two years.
Once the extinction of the species had been consolidated by district, the last wolf
pack was reduced to an area on the left and right hand sides of the municipal limits of Sant
Martí with the caves high up on the hillsides in the municipality of La Juncosa de Montmell.
The final wolf hunts took place in a damp and humid ravine. We don’t know anything about
the rainfall at the time, or if it had snowed. But it’s very likely that in February and March of
1833, the place where this ravine is situated was covered in a blanket of snow. The

hunters were already anticipating returning home before summer. The last “thirty wolves”,
enraged and cornered, began to defend themselves from the top of the rocky limestone
outcrop on the edge of the river. (Even now, If you take a walk in the area, it’s not so
difficult to picture scenes from this long-forgotten drama.) As soon as the men were able to
encircle the wolves, completely certain they would be able to reload their guns, they began
the last hunt in the history of the wolf in our local area. Not long after, the outbreak of the
Liberal-Carlist conflict would cause a even bigger headache for the population of the
municipality.
According to local tales, undocumented as they have only been passed on orally, at
the time of the last wolf hunt in the Fondo dels Trenta Llops, a young man who had been
called out specially for the wolf hunt of March, saw a she-wolf escaping from the
massacre. He was the only one who saw it and he never said a word to anyone.
About twelve or fourteen years later, it’s said that a farmer, after burying some
sheep which had died from an unknown disease, was returning home when he felt he was
being observed, near Mas d'en Coll. Realising that a she-wolf was coming towards him, he
aimed his rifle and shot enough bullets to leave the wolf belly up and quite dead. The
people of the area couldn’t imagine where the poor beast had come from. But the man
who had seen the terrified and enraged animal running away on the day of the last wolf
hunt didn’t want to give any more details about the existence of the wolf. Perhaps this last
member of the Iberian wolf family had come from an area where the hunting and capture
of wolves was still permitted? Montferri, Salomó, Masllorenç, Rodonyà, Can Ferrer or a
place like that. Who knows! Perhaps it was for that reason that no one wanted to talk
about, let alone write down, events like that of the solitary she-wolf of the Penedès.
Be that as it may, this is more or less the description of the last sighting of the
species, now extinct for 175 years.

When it comes to areas near Sant Martí, there are places named Viladellops (on
the road from Vilafranca to Canyelles) and Cantallops, on the main road N-340 just past
Avinyonet or Avinyó Nou. Logically enough, these spots are situated at the foot of the hills
or further inland, where the thick forests and rough uneven ground have always been part
of the habitat of the common Iberian wolf. There are further examples in other areas of
placenames which derive from the life, habitat and doings of this extraordinary animal,
which over the years has created legends and myths.
Another area where it’s known that there were communities of wolves, as it is an
extensive territory with rough terrain, is that which goes from the Serra de Selmellà to the
Pla d'Ancosa, running from South to North, stretching about 20 kilometres. And the valley
of l'Alt Gaià as far as Santa Coloma de Queralt, Esblada, Segué, Querol, Pontons and of
course La Llacuna and Ventanell. You can be sure that they’ve got stories to tell there as
well, stories that are just as important as the story of what happened at the river of
Marmellar.

Agustí Salvà, Sant Martí Sarroca.

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