Cap De Creus

1
Cap De Creus
Location and History
Cap De Creus is located at the most northern tip
of Spain at the most easterly point of the
Iberian peninsula. The area was declared a
nature reserve in May of 1998. History from Cap
de Creus dates back to roman times when large
numbers of dolmens, which are simple magalithic
burial chambers with three or more uprights and
one or more capstones. Submerged I n the waters
in the area there have been shipwrecks from the
Roman Empire. The monastery of Sant Pere de
Rodes, the castle of Sant Salvador and a wide
variety of rural architecture such as farm
houses, and farmers and fishermans huts are
also a part of its heritage.
Geology of Cap de Creus
There are three main geologic trends to due
tectonic activity found in Cap de Creus area a)
Variscan orogeny Cap de Creus is the
easternmost outcrop of the Variscan axial zone of
the Pyrenees. During the Variscan orogeny an
alternation of quartzitic, metapelitic and
metapsammitic rocks and minor metacalcsilicate
and amphibolite rocks were metamorphosed at low
pressure resulting in steep metamorphic gradient
from chlorite-muscovite shales in south to
sillimanite-potassium feldspar bearing schists
and migmatites in north. c) Neogene tectonic
developed tectonic grabens as the result of the
western European extension. These grabens,
mainly filled with Miocene sediments, are broadly
parallel to the Catalonian Coastal Ranges and cut
across the Pyrenees. Cap de Creus was in
short a high-temperature deformation zone with
syntectonic pegmatite intrusions that was formed
from 270 to 310 million years ago.
b) Alpine tectonics collision of Iberia with
the European plate resulting in the rise of the
Pyrenees, the Catalonian Coastal Ranges and the
Iberian chain. The development if these chains
involved basement and Mesozoic-Paleogene cover
sequences, with folds affecting mostly the cover
sequences and thrust affecting both cover and
Variscan basement. The Ebro basin, bounded by
these Alpine chains, received thick piles of
Paleogene sediments resulting from the denudation
of the uplifted domains.
Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes
At the end of the 11th century, the monastery
dedicated to St. Peter, was one of the richest in
Catalonia. The 10th, 11th and 12th centuries were
the years of the greatest splendor of the
monastery, and its church was built and enlarged.
Two cloisters were also built, surrounded by
monastic buildings. It entered a period of
spiritual decline from the 15th century, however
an Abbey building and pilgrims hostel was built.
The Franco-Spanish wars proved disastrous for the
monastery, which was laid under siege by the
French in 1708, and many precious objects were
plundered, including the famous Bible of Roda,
which is today to be found in the National
Library of Paris.The monastic buildings were set
fire to in 1795. They remained in a state of ruin
and abandonment, until their recent restoration.
Grabens are elongated, trenchlike, structural
form bounded by parallel normal faults created
when a block that forms a trench floor moves
downward relative to blocks that form the sides.
Shear zone affecting schist
Folding pattern of quartzite beds
Port Lligat and Salvador Dali
Medes Islands
Port Lligat is a very small fishing village
within walking distance of Cadaques. It is famous
for the house of surrealist painter Salvador Dali
and his wife Gala, which became a museum in 1997.
The journey from Canyelles Petites to Port Lligat
crosses Cap de Creus, its geology and landscape
being a major influence in his works.
The Medes islands are not a particularly high
geological feature, but the action of the sea has
eroded all but the western side, and underwater
the cliffs plunge steeply to 50m or more. The
Islands are mostly made up of limestone and the
area around the islands are well faulted. This
has allowed the formation of many tunnels,
archways and complete cave systems, the most
spectacular of which goes through Meda Petita
from one side of the island to the other.
by Salvador Dali