The route connects Coll de Lli and Coll de Manrella, crossing the municipalities of La Vajol (Alt Empordà) and Morellàs i les Illes (Vallespir). The itinerary features eight informational signs with historical content about the 1939 exile and the frontier's role as a place of passage, struggle, and refuge.
“"The new signage serves to dignify the memory of the people who left for exile along these paths and to transmit what happened to the younger generations."
The inauguration ceremony took place this Saturday, coinciding with the commemoration of the National Day of Exile and Deportation, celebrated every February 5. Minister Ramon Espadaler stressed the importance of this memory to understand that “democracy has not been gifted and must be defended every day”.
The project, which includes bilingual signage (Catalan and French) with QR codes for Spanish and English translations, is the first time the unified design of the Network of Memory Spaces of the Democratic Memorial has been used in a cross-border context. The initiative is part of the European project EXILIS 1936-1946, funded by the Interreg-POCTEFA 2021-2027 program.
During the event, testimony was heard from Joan Pacheco, a 95-year-old resident of Girona, who recounted crossing this very route with his parents in 1939, when he was only eight years old, fleeing into exile.
