Sunday in Berga: an easy walk and a mountain lunch.

It is a wide, almost flat path that rings the ridge of the Queralt sanctuary, with three viewpoints over the valley and the Pedraforca in the distance. It takes an hour and a half unhurried and you cannot get lost. You park at the top, so the only thing you climb is to the last viewpoint. Then you go down to Berga for Berguedà cooking and take a turn around the old town before heading back.

The day, hour by hour

9:30 · Departure. From Barcelona, the C-16 via Manresa to Berga, an hour and twenty minutes without traffic, with one toll. In Berga follow the signs to Queralt: the road climbs to the sanctuary in bends.

11:00 · The Queralt viewpoints. The sanctuary's free car park is five minutes' walk from the start of the path. It is about 4 km on track and path, with 120 metres of ascent in total, suitable for almost everyone. The sanctuary, hung on the rock, is known as the balcony of Catalonia: from the top you see the Berga plain, the Pre-Pyrenean ranges and, on clear days, a good part of the country. Inside is kept the image of the Mare de Déu de Queralt, a 53-centimetre polychrome wooden carving from the late 12th or early 13th century.

12:45 · Down to Berga. A few minutes by car along the same road. If you have time to spare, stroll round the centre before lunch; La Cabana has its own car park.

14:00 · Lunch at La Cabana. It is a former inn in Berga, on the C-1411z road, which the Badia brothers turned into a restaurant in 2003: Jordi in the kitchen and Josep in the dining room. Seasonal Berguedà cooking, with produce from the comarca. On Sundays it serves lunch only, from 13:00 to 16:00, and is closed Monday and Tuesday. In 2026 it closes for holidays from 2 to 17 November.

16:30 · Old town. Narrow streets, the arcaded square and a coffee or a coca from the bakery. If you want to understand the Patum, Berga's great festival, the Casa de la Patum, in the former convent of Sant Francesc, displays its comparsas. Berga tourist office is at Carrer dels Àngels, 7, and on Sundays is open from 10:00 to 14:00.

17:30 · Return. You are in Barcelona around seven.

What to order

Berguedà cooking is mountain and spoon food. At La Cabana, the autumn menu brings mountain rice with black butifarra, salt cod and mushrooms, and pig's snout and ear with black peas, a legume particular to the comarca. Off that menu, look in the comarca for patates enmascarades, with black butifarra. In autumn menus fill with mushrooms, and in winter with stews. Book two or three days ahead: on Sundays the inns of the area fill up with people coming down from the mountain.

If it rains: the Cercs Mining Museum

A quarter of an hour from Berga, the museum takes visitors on a mining train 450 metres into the gallery of the Sant Romà mine; you walk out with a guide who explains how the coal was extracted. The visit is completed with the daily life of the mining colony and a 1940 home. From September to 21 December it opens at weekends from 10:00 to 15:00, and is closed on Mondays and from 22 December to 7 January. The ticket costs €11 and €4 for children aged 5 to 12; it is bought only at the ticket office, at least two hours before closing. Pets are not allowed.

With children and with a dog

The viewpoint path suits children from about four years old and, for a good part, a pushchair with large wheels; the last viewpoint has steps and can be skipped. With younger children, swap the route for the shore of the Baells reservoir, flat and beside the water. Dogs can do the viewpoint path, on a lead. They are not admitted at the Cercs museum.