Lluís Marià Vidal to Montsec

Vidal’s first contacts with Montsec

Lluís Marià i Vidal (1842-1921) was a mining engineer, an excellent field researcher and a pioneer of palaeontology. In 1872, after prospecting the basin with lignites of the Alt Berguedà, he continued the search for coal in the southernmost Montsec . For two consecutive years, 1872 and 1873, he made two excursions
from Santa Maria de Meià and Pont d’Àger,Àger respectively, to the coal levels near the village of Rúbies. During these journeys, Vidal fixed the position and extent of the coal layers of Montsec de Meià.

On these first visits, Vidal already located several Aptian fossils, but it was not until 1888, when he was appointed head of the mining district of Lleida, that he explored the massif again. In addition to carrying out geological and palaeontological research, he is also interested in archaeological remains, revealing several dolmens.
Almost every year, from 1888 to 1895, he made a visit to Montsec, crossing the massif from north to south and from east to west, studying geology in detail, collecting fossils and taking photographs of the area.

The mining demarcations 1898

One of Vidal’s tasks as head of the mining prefecture was to delimit the coal and lithographic stone mining concessions on the ground, so he took advantage of these tasks to continue with his geological observations. The first indication of lithographic limestones was made during an excursion to review the stratigraphy on 17 October 1898, between the hermitage of Sant Sebastià and the first cliff, and which possibly correspond to those of La Cabroa (see Aragonés 2019), although at that time the road leading to the Rúbies quarry was already built and that it was already active, as can be seen in the photograph of October 1899 where the demolition of the farm can be seen. It should be noted that at that time (1898) no fossils had been found in the quarry.