Lleida has recognised journalist Rosa M. Bosch with the best journalistic report award at the 36th International Pica d'Estats Tourist Awards. Her winning series, “25 años de Carros de Foc” (25 Years of Carros de Foc), was published in La Vanguardia and focuses on the mountain route in the Catalan Pyrenees.
The Carros de Foc route links the nine refuges inside Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. Bosch's reports describe the landscapes, people and anecdotes she encountered, including the experiences of hikers, firefighters and park rangers. For background on the route and the park, see the official tourism and park information from Visit Pirineus and Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park.
On receiving the award, Bosch thanked the jury and the Provincial Council, and described the prize as recognition of “old-school journalism, unhurried and rigorous, getting out into the field, asking people, and experiencing the places firsthand.” She also thanked La Vanguardia and its director, Jordi Juan, for supporting her reporting. Bosch said the award was also a tribute to the park rangers who created the route 26 years ago, a route that “has set a precedent.”
This year's awards received 112 submissions. The Pica d'Estats prizes have a total fund of €48,000, split across eight categories, with €6,000 for each winning entry. Joan Talarn, president of the Provincial Council, congratulated the winners and said that telling the story of the Pyrenees and the Lleida Lands is also a way of loving them. He added that journalists turn landscape, stories and experiences into narratives that can reach a wide audience.
Other winners included Àlex Milian for best journalistic article with “Los pigmentos secretos del románico catalán” in El Temps, and Òscar Rodbag for best photographic report with “El alta Noguera Pallaresa, los 30 kilómetros de río mejor conservados de Catalunya” in Descobrir Catalunya. Joana Sendra and Luis Jover won best radio work for “La luz que nos da el agua: la central de Camarasa”, broadcast on RNE on 11 September 2025, while “Beatus Ille-Àreu”, broadcast on La 2 on 16 November 2024, won best audiovisual work.
The jury also awarded Cristina Torra's “Territori Menut – Val d'Aran, Solsona i Cerdanya” for Descobrir Catalunya as best transmedia work, Marco Berneveld's “The Pyrenees of Catalonia. Winter in the Realm of Royalty” in WideOyster as best international press work, and Albert de Gràcia's “El Pirineu que emociona” for MeteoPirineus as the local media award. The jury was chaired by Joan Maria Morros, dean of the Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya, with Josep Cuní, Pepa Fernández, Luis Foix, Mariano Palacín, Mónica Terribas, Laura Alcalde, Anna Sáez, Francisco Guillaumet, Francisco Canosa and Josep Cabasés among its members. Juli Alegre, director of the Tourism Board, acted as secretary.
