Catégorie : Vinça Porte de la Baronnie

To drink, cook, do the housework, wash oneself, wash the linen, refresh the cattle, water is indispensable to life. Throughout history, this vital prerequisite has been essential in determining the site of many settlements. Vinça is no exception, situated as it is, close to the river Têt and crossed by many streams, among them the “Real” and the “Baldosa”;  Vinça is blessed with plentiful fresh water all the year round. 

Some of the fountains which still embellish the village have been recorded over many centuries, for example Font d’en Preses(1349) and font Nova (1420).Others have been modified, as was the one in rue du Barris in1810, while others have been rebuilt, such as the one at the gate of “Bari del Prat” The growing awareness of public hygiene since the middle of the nineteenth century led to the erection of public wash houses, especially after the legislative Assembly voted on 3^rd February 1851 to grant special funds to have such amenities built. Up until then, the undifferentiated use of public water supply had obstructed what then became recognised as the need to combat such epidemics as cholera, typhoid fever small pox which had been all too frequent. A programme of constructing public wash houses was undertaken. 

These public wash houses and fountains were often made of local materials. The four remaining wash houses and the fifteen fountains, all still in use, are a good example of this : employing shingle or river pebbles, flag stone of schist, cairo, Conflent pink marble, sculpted stone, and in more recent times, sandstone cement and reinforced concrete.

There are four red marble crosses in Vinça. Some of them retain the date of when they were constructed and the name of the patron who had them erected.

A former damaged cross, which is no longer in the village, was sculpted in the early fifteenth century and is inscribed in Catalan “Mossen Guille(m) Riba, alias Maco, had me built”.

There are as many as 27 places of popular devotion, meditation and contemplation known as oratories or shrines, scattered throughout the village. They were installed to commemorate Christian saints and they contain relevant statues, some of which are quite naive while others are very refined.

The oldest ones date as far back as the seventeenth and eighteenth century  As was the case for the crosses their location was carefully chosen to show the way to a church, to a site of pilgrimage or a village, often at a crossroads or at a pass. In the more remote locations these oratories invited the passers-by to commune with the saint and to pray in the open air without having to go to a church. Building these shrines and oratories was often a way of giving thanks to particular saints and their attributes. Some are particularly honoured in Vinça : for example the Virgin, Saint Sebastian for protection against the epidemics, Saint Galdric, the patron saint of farmers and agricultural workers for a plentiful supply of water, Saint Anthony of Padoua for the recovery of health and  thanks for wishes granted.