Sant
Martí de Canals is a town in the Pallars
Jussà, in the southwestern slope of the Serra del Boumort,
6 Km of la Pobla de Segur and to 650 ms of height.
At the moment it counts 30 inhabitants and is part of the municipality
Conca de Dalt.
The name of Sant Martí de Canals appears for the first time in
966, in a bulle of the Pope Johan XIII. During centuries he was mainly
subject to the monastery of Gerri de la Sal.
The romanesque church dates originally from 10. century, but it has undergone
several transformations, one first in 1394, another one in 1637.
The nucleus of the town was surely the one that still is conserved
today. In 1790 Francisco Rius it describes it in his answer to the interrogatorio
of Francisco de Zamora: the form of the town is a street with a small
square and at the end of the street it is the church that closes the street.
Its entrance and exit is a door, with which the town can be closed.
All these elements are still conserved today. Outside this medieval nucleus
some other buildings exist, surely constructed in 19. century, although
its architecture is very similar to the one of the rest of the town.
Long time ago, the main activities where the grapevine and the oil, later
went away leaving the grapevines and at the moment the almond and sheepkeeping
are relatively more important. Whereas the grapevine has disappeared completely,
part of the olive trees still is conserved, although every day they are
left less.
Within the old municipal term enough sources existed a long time ago,
of which still they are left some rest, in the precipice of Sant Martí,
near the town, there had been orchards with a system of irrigated land
channels, which they giveave some years ago when the water of the river
finished, drying itself at the same time practically all the sources. The
climate was possibly something different before 18. century, since descriptions
of the time relate us that these places were very leafy, although other
chronicles make reference to the fact that processions only took place
to invoke rain when lacked water.
In a situation of drought like the present one, the future of a town
of these characteristics it does not stop being relatively uncertain. In
one of the regions less populated with Europe, and with the additional
difficulties that stop a traditional agriculture can represent the European
agrarian policy, to think about an industrial future or a subsistence based
exclusively on the tourism can be as tempting as dangerous: in this zone
where the erosion has an important paper, traditional agriculture can contribute
decisively in the conservation of diverse types of the patrimony - cultural,
architectonic, landscaping, artisan and social - what it at the moment
represents one of the few existing wealth, without which the tourism by
itself could not subsist in a zone like this one.
Sant
Martí de Canals is a town in the 
The romanesque church dates originally from 10. century, but it has undergone
several transformations, one first in 1394, another one in 1637.
Its entrance and exit is a door, with which the town can be closed.
All these elements are still conserved today. Outside this medieval nucleus
some other buildings exist, surely constructed in 19. century, although
its architecture is very similar to the one of the rest of the town.
