Les tovalles de Can Rovira (tablecloth of Can Rovira)
One of the most popular legends in Sant Hilari is the one that talks about the famous tablecloths of Can Rovira, which once was the most important manor house in the village. Nowadays there is a mural that makes reference to it right opposite the building.
The mural painted on the building located right opposite the tourist office represents the legend of “les tovalles de Can Rovira”:
Can Rovira was the most powerful and largest manor house in the town. Until a few years back, when the last surviving mistress of the family died, tablecloths had always been placed on the altar in front of the house on Corpus Christi Day. The legend says that these tablecloths belonged to the Encantats (The Enchanted), who lived in an underground palace, near the place called Roca d’en Pla. It seems that The Enchanted used to spread the tablecloths on the rocks and, one day, the heir of Can Rovira, who was passing by, picked them up and ran away. The Enchanted, half-mythological beings, saw him and ran after him. When they almost got him, the bells of Sant Hilari rang what we call “the touch of souls”; The Enchanted then stopped the chase and shouting loudly they said: “Keep these tablecloths well, for all who keep them will never be poor”, and this was the origin of their fortune and greatness.
So, it tells the story of the moment when the magical tablecloths were taken, not necessarily by Can Rovira’s heir, but by anyone obsessed with benefiting from their properties by stopping in time and denying the gravity. This mural expresses the difficulty through the elements on the table and the probable vigilance by a watchman, symbolised with a Roman helmet. This fact is represented from different points of view in Chisto Javacheff’s style.