La Mola restaurant is closing after nearly 60 years

This Sunday is the last day that the restaurant located at the top of La Mola, inside Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Park, serves food to its customers.

Diputació de Barcelona, ​​the bidder, did not renew the restaurant service franchise for the Gimferrer family, which has run the establishment for nearly 60 years. Housed in a 10th-century monastery more than 1,100 meters above sea level, this restaurant can only be reached on foot and the food is brought by mule.

Diputació de Barcelona claims that this should be implemented A plan to preserve and preserve the environment Natural Park and Heritage of the Monastery of Sant Llorenç del Munt. He wants the institution there to adapt to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism and this is the case Reduce the number of visitors In the park, which is now about 300,000 each year. They want too Limiting the movement of herd animalsLike the mules carrying groceries to the restaurant.

In addition, representatives of the county council ensure that 70 restaurants Located inside the park “perfectly covers the needs of the public.”

Protests from regular customers were of no use, nor were negotiations 14,000 signatures were collected To demand that the space not be closed. Today is the last day the restaurant will be open and will close at mid-afternoon.

60 years of the restaurant in La Mola

The Gimferrer family started the business nearly 60 years ago, when the park and abbey were privately owned. At the time he sold to Diputació de Barcelona, ​​the family bought the restaurant's relocation.

In the mid-eighties, the provincial council opened a public tender to award management of the restaurant because the site was located within a publicly owned park. Since then, the Gemferer family has been the only one to systematically bid. According to the person in charge of the work until today, “because the conditions of the restaurant at the top of La Mola are very difficult and not everyone is willing to go there.”