The simiots of Canigó: the beasts that came down from the forest

Marc RL · · Upd. · 4 min read

Some summer storms arrive out of nowhere. The sky darkens over Canigó, the wind pours down the valley and the thunder rattles windows and rooftops.

Today we check the radar on our phones. Centuries ago, in the Vallespir, a hailstorm could ruin the harvest and leave a family with nothing. And when there was no way to explain a misfortune, the forest was usually to blame.

Or, more precisely, the simiots.

The beasts of Arles de Tec

The legend is tied to Arles de Tec, in Northern Catalonia, where the Benedictine abbey of Santa Maria stands, founded in the year 778.

According to tradition, the woods were home to hairy, wild creatures, halfway between an animal and a person. Some versions give them the body of a lion and the head of an ape. Others simply say they were hideous beasts.

They came down from the mountains, attacked the locals and got into houses through the roofs or the chimneys. The darkest accounts claim they carried off children to devour them in the forest.

Researcher Jordi Ardanuy explains that the name can be understood as an ape-like creature, though the real origin and age of the myth are not as clear as has often been repeated.

That valley had wolves, bears, floods and hunger. You didn’t need to see a monster for long before, after the story passed from mouth to mouth, it ended up with the face of a simiot.

The abbot who came back from Rome

The situation, the legend says, became so serious that Abbot Arnulf travelled all the way to Rome to seek help.

Arnulf did exist and is documented in the 10th century. What already belongs to legend is his return with the relics of Saint Abdon and Saint Sennen, popularly known as Sant Nin and Sant Non.

They were protectors of farmers and their harvests, above all against hail and storms. When the relics reached Arles, the simiots are said to have started howling before fleeing into the forest.

The story is perfect: the saints arrive and the beasts vanish.

Perhaps too perfect.

The texts that tell the miracle come after the supposed events. It is possible that the monastery took a fear that already existed and turned it into a Christian story. The relics gained prestige, the abbey drew pilgrims, and the locals got an explanation for what they couldn’t control.

Stone, water and a procession that endures

The abbey preserves Romanesque carvings of monstrous animals that for centuries have been identified with the simiots. There is no inscription to confirm it, but it’s hard to look at a stone beast gripping a person and not think of the legend.

In the courtyard there is also the Santa Tomba, a marble sarcophagus that gathers water inside it. Tradition held it to be miraculous. Modern studies explain it mainly through rainwater seeping in and condensation.

And then there’s the Rodella.

Every 30 July, the people of Montboló walk down to Arles de Tec with a great wheel coated in beeswax and decorated with flowers. The procession renews an old vow to the saints to protect the fields from storms.

According to one of the stories, a shepherd heard, in the middle of a storm, voices complaining that the relics wouldn’t let them pass. The villagers decided they could only be the simiots.

Not the most scientific conclusion, but the procession is still held.

The monster that needed the forest

There is no proof that wild men with the face of an ape ever lived on Canigó. The legend may have grown from animals that came close to the villages, from real disappearances, or from the need to frighten children so they wouldn’t go out after dark.

What we do know is that the simiots stuck to the landscape: in the abbey’s carvings, in the Santa Tomba, and in a procession that comes down the mountain in the height of summer.

Now we have roads, GPS and weather forecasts. But when a storm breaks over the Vallespir and the thunder echoes through the woods, the legend still works.

Especially if the house has a chimney.

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