High in the mountains of Pallars Jussà, surrounded by forests, rocky slopes and the landscapes of the Serra de Boumort and Serra de Carreu, lies Herba-savina, an abandoned village where only the remains of its former homes and church survive.

Today the settlement is uninhabited, but its history reaches back centuries. Alongside its rural past and dramatic mountain setting, Herba-savina is also closely associated with a 1943 multiple murder in the nearby Carreu valley, a case that later became the subject of a novel by Catalan writer Pep Coll.

Where is Herba-savina?

Herba-savina is part of the municipality of Conca de Dalt in the comarca of Pallars Jussà, in the province of Lleida.

The former settlement stands at approximately 1,020 metres above sea level, in a mountainous area between the Serra de Boumort and Serra de Carreu.

Its remote position is one of the defining characteristics of the place.

A village with medieval origins

Herba-savina has a long documented history.

Historical references to the settlement date back to the 11th century, with records cited from 1055 and 1098.

For centuries, the village formed part of the wider territorial and feudal structure of Pallars and was associated with the former jurisdiction of Hortoneda de la Conca.

The settlement later became an independent municipality during the early 19th century, although that status did not last.

Herba-savina was once home to dozens of people

The village was never large by modern standards, but it was once a functioning rural community.

Historical records indicate that its population reached 61 inhabitants, with around ten households and a group of simple one-storey houses.

Life centred on agriculture, livestock and the resources available in the surrounding mountains.

Residents cultivated crops including rye and potatoes and kept goats and livestock. Nearby forests provided timber, firewood and charcoal, while firewood was also sold in La Pobla de Segur.

The population gradually disappeared

Like many mountain settlements across the Pyrenees, Herba-savina experienced a long process of depopulation.

By 1970, only six residents remained.

In 1981, just one inhabitant was recorded.

The village subsequently became completely abandoned, and many of its houses deteriorated into ruins as vegetation gradually reclaimed the former streets and buildings.

The church of Sant Miquel

Among the most recognisable remains is the former church of Sant Miquel.

The church once served the local community and was a suffragan church of Santa Maria de Pessonada.

Today, the structure survives in a ruined state, providing one of the clearest reminders that Herba-savina was once a lived-in settlement rather than simply a collection of abandoned buildings.

A crime that marked the surrounding valley

Herba-savina is also associated with one of the best-known unsolved crimes in this part of Pallars.

In 1943, a family of tenant farmers living in the Carreu valley was murdered.

The crime shocked nearby farmsteads and villages, but it attracted little wider attention at the time.

Later accounts have described the case as unresolved, with no definitive convictions for the killings.

The four victims were eventually buried in the cemetery at Herba-savina.

The cemetery remains part of the story

The small cemetery is one of the most significant surviving places connected with the 1943 crime.

The grave of the four members of the murdered family remains there, linking the abandoned settlement with an event that became part of local memory.

The cemetery is therefore more than another surviving element of the old village. It is also one of the physical places where the history of the surrounding valley can still be encountered.

Pep Coll brought the story back to wider attention

Decades later, writer Pep Coll researched the case and used it as the basis for his historical novel Dos taüts negres i dos de blancs.

Coll, who was born in nearby Pessonada, spent several years researching the events and the people connected with them.

The novel reconstructs the rural world in which the killings took place and examines the relationships, disputes and social conditions surrounding the case.

The landscape around Herba-savina and Carreu forms an important part of that historical setting.

The crime and the village are not the same location

It is important to distinguish between Herba-savina itself and the exact location of the 1943 killings.

The crime took place in the Carreu valley, in a nearby tenant-farming property.

Herba-savina became closely associated with the story because of its proximity, the burial place of the victims and its role in the landscape recreated in Pep Coll's work.

That distinction is important when describing the history accurately.

Herba-savina became a symbol of rural abandonment

The deserted village also tells a wider story about life in the mountain areas of Catalonia.

Improved transport, changing agricultural practices and the gradual concentration of services in larger settlements contributed to the disappearance of many small mountain communities.

Herba-savina followed that pattern.

As the population declined, the homes and agricultural buildings lost their original purpose, eventually leaving the landscape with little more than walls, ruins and traces of former streets.

Nature is reclaiming the old settlement

Today, vegetation has spread through much of Herba-savina.

Trees, shrubs and climbing plants surround the abandoned buildings, while exposed stone walls provide reminders of the village's former layout.

The effect is particularly striking because the settlement sits within an extensive mountainous landscape rather than beside a modern road or populated centre.

Part of the Boumort landscape

Herba-savina lies within the wider Serra de Boumort natural environment.

The area is known for its forests, mountain scenery and wildlife and forms part of the protected landscape associated with Boumort.

The region has also played a role in the recovery and conservation of the bearded vulture, one of the emblematic species of the Pyrenees.

This natural setting has helped preserve the sense of remoteness that defines the abandoned village today.

A destination for hikers and history enthusiasts

Herba-savina can be reached as part of hiking routes through the Carreu valley and the surrounding mountains.

Routes from Pessonada connect the old settlement with other historical and natural sites, following traditional paths and tracks through the landscape.

Some sections can be demanding, and the ruined condition of the former village means visitors should take care around unstable structures.

The old paths tell another story

The routes leading to Herba-savina are themselves part of the area's history.

Traditional paths once connected the village with neighbouring settlements and agricultural areas.

Some sections retain traces of their former construction, while the wider landscape provides views across the valleys and mountain ridges of Pallars Jussà.

Walking these routes offers a different perspective on how isolated communities once travelled and worked across the mountains.

A village remembered through literature

One of the reasons Herba-savina continues to attract interest is the way its history has survived through literature as well as physical remains.

Pep Coll's novel transformed a little-known local crime into a broader examination of rural life, isolation and memory.

The village and surrounding Carreu landscape consequently became recognisable to readers as part of the setting of the story.

What remains today

There is no modern population living in Herba-savina.

Instead, visitors encounter the remains of the former settlement, including ruined houses, traces of its streets, the cemetery and the remains of Sant Miquel church.

The buildings are evidence of a community that once lived from the surrounding land but gradually disappeared during the 20th century.

A place shaped by two histories

Herba-savina has two particularly powerful stories running through its landscape.

The first is the long history of rural life, from its medieval documentation to the agricultural community that once lived there.

The second is the memory of the 1943 crime in the nearby Carreu valley and the way that case has remained part of local history.

Neither story fully explains the village on its own.

Together, they form part of the identity of a place that has survived physically even after its residents have gone.

Herba-savina today

Herba-savina is now one of the abandoned settlements scattered through the mountains of Pallars Jussà.

Its ruins, old church and cemetery remain surrounded by the natural landscape of Boumort and Carreu.

The village offers a glimpse into a rural way of life that disappeared during the last century, while its connection to the unresolved 1943 crime has given the site an additional layer of historical significance.

For anyone exploring the quieter side of the Catalan Pyrenees, Herba-savina is a place where landscape, rural history and local memory remain closely connected.