Núria: The Price of a Dream. Faith, Birth, and Tourism in the Catalan Mountains (1917–1936), by Carles Gorini Santo, historian and researcher at the Catalan Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, examines the origins of mountain tourism in Catalonia and the heritage of public works, with a special focus on the legacy of the railroad. The essay reconstructs the history of the project that sought to transform the Núria Valley into a modern sanctuary, where the rack-and-pinion railway and the mountain hotel would coexist with religious devotion and myth.

The company Ferrocarriles de Montaña en Grandes Pendientes (FMGP) envisioned combining religious fervor with engineering and tourism, and transforming the mountain into a place that offers both a spiritual experience and a profitable business venture.

Taking a perspective that combines cultural history, heritage, and tourism, the author reveals how the Catalan mountains became the setting for a fascinating tension between morality and the market, nature and technology, faith and modernity. This work invites us to rethink the way we view—and inhabit—our landscape.