Parc de Pedra Tosca

The Parc de Pedra Tosca, located within the Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa (Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park), is a patchwork of small fields dotted with dry-stone huts, tossols (small conical mounds used in traditional farming), and cold-air vents, all separated by a maze of dry-stone walls. These plots sit atop the lava flow emitted by the Puig Jordà volcano around 17,000 years ago. The shift from oak forest to farmland followed Mendizábal’s 19th-century secularisation, when church lands were transferred to local inhabitants who cultivated them.
The careful restoration and reclamation of the landscape earned the Parc de Pedra Tosca project the Rosa Barba European Landscape Prize, awarded to the architects RCR Arquitectes in 2003.