Port of Gireta. Route 02 of Persecuted and Saved, stage 2, in 4×4, Montgarri-Alós d’Isil.

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We will know the 2nd stage of the route of Persecuted and Saved, by the Port of Gireta, that can be done in 4×4.

During the years of World War II (1939-1944), thousands of Jews crossed the Pyrenees fleeing persecution in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Holocaust affected six million European Jews. Many of those who managed to escape, originally from Germany, Austria, Poland, Holland, Belgium or France, crossed the mountain passes of the Lleida Pyrenees in epic escapes, challenging surveillance on both sides of the border, the weather, the snow. perpetual and the harshness of the journey. His goal was to seek refuge away from Europe.

Until 1943, the fugitives were basically refugee families in France who escaped the persecution initiated by the Vichy government. The “Persecuted and Saved” project highlights the values ​​of cross-border spaces and roads as cultural and memorial itineraries with the aim of spreading their role as places of escape for the persecuted during World War II. At the same time, it praises the values ​​of help and solidarity that the residents of this territory expressed towards the refugees. One of the busiest escape routes was the one that connects the French department of Ariège with the Val d’Aran and the Pallars Sobirà, through the port of Gireta (2,593 m).

The route started from the Riberot Valley, near Saint-Girons (Ariège) and, once crossed the port of Gireta, descended to Montgarri. Later, they continued towards the Pallars Sobirà, following the path parallel to the river Noguera Pallaresa, and reached the huts of Perosa and then Alós d’Isil. This stage of Persecuted and Saved, has the added value of passing through the Natural Park of the High Pyrenees, to the sound of the waters of La Noguera Pallaresa in the middle of pines and firs, with a very leafy undergrowth, until in a turn already we see the Vall de Bonabé, the Bordes de Perosa and the Pont de Perosa, a hiding place and crossroads that descended from other ports also used by those fleeing the Nazis: the Port de Clavera and the Port d’Aulà.

About 15 minutes from the Pont de Perosa we will find the “Bistrot Borda Ignàsia”, a tavern where we can have a meal, during the summer season when it is open. Along the way we can see the remains of the Mathussière Forest, the company that exploits the Bonabé forest, from the early twentieth century that reminds us of an industrially prosperous past in the High Pyrenees Valleys.

We will arrive at the detour to the Port of Salau, another of the emblematic itineraries of the Exile and Route of Persecuted and Saved, which we will leave behind. We will soon reach the Fornet refuge, and the road that will take us to the village of Alós d’Isil. At the entrance to Alós we will find the old sawmill and explanatory totems of historical memory.

Already in Alós we can look for the old barracks of the “carabinieri”, point where the refugees intercepted by the police patrols were identified and detained.