Visitors to Catalonia in northeastern Spain, which has been trying for independence for many years, usually choose cities like Barcelona, ​​Tarragona or Girona. What few people know is that, close to these places, is little Garrotxa, almost on the border with France, which has a curious building beyond: a chapel inside the crater of a volcano.

Santa Margarida is a freatomagmatic volcano that formed 11, 500 years ago. It was formed by lava, which created a hill almost 700 meters high and a circular crater that is now overgrown with undergrowth. In the middle of it is the chapel, built in 1865.

Chapel gathers tourists and faithful

Interestingly, this is not the first religious building on the site: an earthquake in the region in 1428 destroyed the first chapel that was made inside the volcano. This event would have killed at least 20 people in Barcelona, ​​which is about 90 km south of Santa Margarida volcano.

Today the volcano is inactive as it belongs to the class of volcanoes that erupt only once in all of its history. Thus, the little chapel must remain safe for a few centuries - until some earthquake similar to that of 1428 strikes again and possibly destroys it.

The Santa Margarida volcano is exactly 682 meters high and a chapel in its crater

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