Fire path, Llesp

How to reach the faro of Llesp

In Llesp, the falles are run on the Saturday of the summer festival, which takes place on the last weekend of July. This tradition, interrupted between 1949 and 2009, was formerly held on the eve of Saint John’s Day.

The falla is a Scots pine trunk, peeled and split in the shape of a cross, with black pine splinters inserted without nails or wire. The pines are cut seven weeks in advance, and the falles are made collectively by the whole village.

The falla and the tradition

Children run the falles before the adults, starting from the cemetery, and light the faro in the square, which serves as a signal for the fallaires up above. They light their falles with a single small torch and walk down to the Font Vella. They then run through the village and, finally, form a circle in the square and throw their falles at the same time at the foot of the faro.

In the 1930s, Violant i Simorra described the falles of Llesp as being made with dry boxwood tied to a handle, as well as the “faro of Tartero”. However, it is not certain that this corresponds to the current location, since Tartero is a very extensive area.