Introduction
Scattered around the Hortes area, there are a number of country houses and gardeners' houses, like the ones we find at this point: Ca l’Escolà (straight ahead) and Cal Gras (to the right).
The canal is the Monar irrigation channel, which carries water diverted from the river Ter's right bank at the Pilastra dam, located at the edge of the villages of Bescanó and Salt. The irrigation channels waters the vegetables gardens in Salt and Girona and drains into the Onyar, in the city.
Mentions of it date back to the 11th century, and it was apparently built by the counts of Girona. It has been used for agricultural and industrial purposes, and played an important role in the industrialisation of Salt (the Gasol, Coma and Cros factories, among others), Santa Eugènia (the Marfà factory) and the Mercadal quarter of Girona, where the most prominent factories (Grober) set up in the 19th century.