Jun 7, 2025
Carrer del Bou, Tortosa, Tarragona, Catalonia.
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Carrer del Bou, Tortosa, Tarragona, Catalonia.
De Salses a Guardamar i de Fraga a l’Alguer: les comarques de parla catalana una a una. 49/88: el Baix Ebre (Terres de l’Ebre, Catalonia).
Baix Ebre (“Lower Ebro”) is a shire in the south of Catalonia, around the end of the river Ebro’s course and its mouth in the Mediterranean sea. Its capital city is Tortosa, which was one of the most important cities during the Islamic period and has also a rich Renaissance architecture heritage.
Baix Ebre includes parts of two natural parks. One is the Natural Park of the Ebro’s Delta (Parc Natural del Delta de l’Ebre), one of the three most important wetlands in the Western Mediterranean. The other is els Ports mountains (Parc Natural dels Ports) shared with Terra Alta and Montsià.
Photos by pitarque, turismeacatalunya.cat, tortosaturisme, guiarium.com, araceli_clic.
Carrer de Les Voltes, Paüls, Tarragona, Catalonia.
Calle Sant Miquel, Tivenys, Tarragona, Catalonia.
Calle Trinquet, Deltebre, Tarragona, Catalonia.
Calle Mangrané, Roquetes, Tarragona, Catalonia.
Benifallet, Tarragona, Catalonia.
Nowadays marfantes are mythological beings similar to ghosts used to scare children from the Baix Ebre and Montsià areas of Catalonia, but they actually existed in a specific moment of history.
They were ordinary people who wrapped themselves in a blanket to hide their identity and moved around at night to commit an action that went against the law or was considered immoral (often visiting a lover, or to scare people away from where a friend was having relations with a lover), and managed to be undisturbed by scaring the locals who might see them. Under the blanket sometimes they had other objects to make their appearance harder to recognise, such as a long hook to seem taller.
In the 1940s, the years of generalized poverty after the Civil War (1936-1939), people who smuggled food also used this costume.
Source: Inventari del Patrimoni Cultural de les Terres de l’Ebre