In addition to the historical and heritage value of the megalithic tombs and the church of Santa Coloma, Fitor, offers an unbeatable setting for the practice of activities related to active tourism: Cycling, mountain biking or hiking. Fitor is a special place, especially for those seeking tranquillity.
The church of Santa Coloma is one of the jewels of the Gavarres massif and without a doubt the most symbolic element of Fitor.
It is a Romanesque church, which stands majestic on a small plain that appears in the ridge formed by Puig d'Arriells and Puig Gros. The most singular and characteristic element of the building is its great bell tower, visible from most of the massif. It has a rectangular floor plan, with openings on all the three floors and a pyramidal roof covering four slopes. The openings on the upper floor are twin windows, with rounded arches, circular crossbones and trapezoidal capitals. This floor, which has been re-created, differs from the lower one, in terms of the era and constructive technique. Its vertical wall is made from sealed and polished ashlars with calcareous stone of regular dimensions, without oversized pieces on the edges. The Lombard influence of Catalan Romanesque is presented in the decoration of the windows on the upper floor of the bell tower, with an arcade frieze. Together with the rectory and the cemetery, it forms a small group.
In Fitor we can also find the densest dolmen village in the Gavarres area, and one of the main ones in Catalonia. The megaliths of the Gavarres were built at different times between 3400 and 2000 before Christ. Twenty-one have been counted in the whole of the massif, but Fitor is where more have been located.
A significant number of these funerary constructions are still in a good state of preservation, made with large stone slabs, which show a good part of their original structure. At the end of Fitor there are fifteen dolmens, a menhir and several sacrifice stones. The best known are in the Serra de Cals, where the dolmen of Tres Peus, Tres Caires and the Serra de Calçó, are very well preserved, from which there are spectacular views of the Gavarres massif.
Dolmens were collective sepulchral enclosures designed to protect the bodies, located in elevated and dominant points, on the summits of hills or in well visible places. It has been proven that they were built with the intention that sunlight could reach the interior of the room, at least during the winter and summer solstices.
E-ROUTE 1: THE DOLMENS OF FITOR
A very easy circular route, ideal for small children or people with reduced mobility (not suitable for wheelchairs in the final section). This route of 1.62 km (45 minutes) and with an unevenness of 72 meters, allows us to visit the church of Santa Coloma de Fitor, the Mas Puig and the dolmen and the insculptures of the Llobinar.
Some good views can be enjoyed of the bell tower of Fitor with the Montgrí behind and the walk goes, to begin with, by the Camí Ral that linked the towns of Palamós and Girona. This route runs to a large extent through the land of Mas Joanola de Ramón Botey i Serra, please respect it.
The proposed itinerary leaves from Fitor, where the concentration of dolmens is the largest in the Baix Empordà. By car you can access it by following the wide forest trails that start from Mont-ras and Fonteta. To access Fitor on foot there is the PR-C 105 that allows you to reach it from Mont-ras and from Palamós, and there is also the PR-C from Fonteta. This route is part of the Baix Empordà hiking network, signalled within the framework of the Tourism Excellence Plan managed by the Baix Empordà Tourist Commission.
E-ROUTE 2: DOLMENS ROUTE OF THE SERRA D’EN CALS
This is a circular route of moderate difficulty,10.38 km long, with a duration of 4 hours that runs through the Serra d'en Cals and the Serra Mitjana. With this route you can discover a great variety of megalithic presence in the northern part of the Gavarres with 10 megalithic monuments.
The proposed itinerary leaves from Fitor, where the concentration of dolmens is the largest in the Baix Empordà. By car you can access it by following the wide forest trails that start from Mont-ras and Fonteta. To access Fitor on foot there is the PR-C 105 that allows you to reach it from Mont-ras and from Palamós, and there is also the PR-C from Fonteta. This route is part of the Baix Empordà hiking network, signalled within the framework of the Tourism Excellence Plan managed by the Baix Empordà Tourist Commission.
The route can be gently done in one morning, stopping to enjoy the surroundings and it is especially designed so that you can enter the natural environment and the history of the Gavarres, specifically in its prehistoric era.
Other heritage
The village of Peratallada is located in the province of Girona, halfway between Barcelona and the French border, in the heart of Empordà and a few kilometres from the Costa Brava.
The good weather and the ease of access, the importance of festivities and popular events, the uniqueness of fairs and markets, the beauty of the coves and beaches, the richness of the historical and cultural heritage, gastronomic quality, and the wide range of activities and services offered by our region make Empordà an idyllic and ideal place for a good holiday.
Apart from its architectural and historical attractions, the town is renowned for its significant artisan and, above all, gastronomic offer. The alleyways of the village are full of numerous and suggestive restaurants of all kinds, which offer the perfect complement to a visit to the village.
Peratallada has managed to preserve its rural character, while remaining faithful to its architectural and urban origins. It can be said that it has not expanded beyond the perimeter of the walls. The town still retains its medieval urban layout. From the square of Les Voltes, with its unique arcadings, to the plot of narrow streets, where you can discover a number of interesting elements of popular architecture. On older walls, the houses are still characteristic of the 16th century. The traditional houses of Peratallada usually have the ground floors lined with vaults made from stone, used as stores and cellars, while the upper floor is dedicated to living. There may still be another floor in the area of ??attic or barn and often a patio or ample access area at the back.
The place name Petra scissa or Petra Tallada is documented, apparently, from the 10th century. Later on, the name refers to a few modifications to the people or to the different characters of the Peratallada lineage, which eventually became one of the most significant in the Baix-Empordà roots. Thus, for example, in 1062 there is mention of a Bernardi de Patra Taliada, in 1065 Castro de Petra Taliata appears. In 1088 we find Petrataliata, 1111 Petra Taliata, 1112 Petra Talata, 1128 Petra Incisa and Patra Taiata, 1143 Petra Tayada, 1169 and 1173 Petra incisa, 1202 and 1222 Petricissa, etc...
The church of Sant Esteve
This is a Romanesque temple with two naves raised to the east by semicircular apses, built with large square ashlars. On the façade the front door stands out, with a half-pointed arch, followed by mouldings, a simple rose window and three brackets that may have held beams of a porch that has disappeared. The Romanesque work has undergone several late alterations, which is evident above all in the interior. The front of the nave has a pointed vault with three toral arches; in the north one the vault is followed by a tubular section and another pointed one. At the moment, the interior of the building cannot be visited.
The castle-palace
It has been proved through documentary evidence that it already existed in 1065, but some architectural structures and other vestiges seem to show that in this place there had already been a fortress from much more distant times. It currently has constructive parts from different eras and styles. It is an extensive amalgam of buildings that make up one of the most interesting medieval castles and palaces in the country. This castle, which had been abandoned and finally sold by the descendants of the Cruïlles-Peratallada, served for years for the peasantry until the current owners, the counts of Torroella de Montgrí, began, in the vicinity of 1965, to rehabilitate it. In its present state, we can distinguish two sectors that are clearly differentiated by its structure and old use: the fortified village and the palace.
The fortified village or, defence, that is to say, the castle, is raised above an enormous rocky base of natural rock, artificially cut to give it verticality. The rocky mound, which rises 4 or 5 meters above ground, has two rectilinear sides and the others form unequal curves. Above that is the tribute tower, a true emblem of the town. The wall that surrounds the tower adapts to the irregular shape of the hill and conserves some battlements. The large ashlars of the wall that surrounds the tower could come from a construction from the early Roman or Visigothic period.
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The schematic floor of the castle responds to the type of fortress of the late medieval period, very common in Carolingian times. In spite of everything, the existing architectural structure today is the result of later reconstructions. Romanesque work (C. XI-XII) can be considered as a good part of the walled enclosure, which still shows subsequent reforms. The remains of ancient settlements, before the medieval buildings that survive, are traced to the fortified village, but also to below: in the rear patio of the palace and below it. There are several foundations and a large number of cavities and grooves cut into the ground rock.
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The palace is made up by different associated buildings that occupy a large area in the south-east and at a lower level of the defence village. It covers a complicated, irregular and scattered area. These constructions surround a central courtyard, but there are also other open spaces, closed, partly, by fence walls. The main façade of the palace is still on the east and occupies one side of the Castle Square. In the restoration works, the original structure was given back some of its openings. On the floor there are four large Gothic window frames with fine columns and capitals and arches on which there is a singular decoration.
The old quarter was declared in 2009 by the Directorate General of Heritage of the Generalitat as a cultural asset of national interest in the historical group category. The town is made up of an old town with great architectural interest, which is structured around the elements that make up the castle-palace and the parish church of Sant Julià and Santa Basilissa.
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The elements conserve a good part of the characteristics that are typical of the medieval Catalan towns. According to the text from the Government's agreement, the town "articulates throughout its grounds, a series of routes and spaces of architectural interest that invite contemplation and intrigue through the old town of this municipality", which "makes the integration and preservation of these historic elements especially necessary".
The parish church of Sant Julià and Santa Basilissa is the old chapel of the castle. The current building dates from the 16th century, with a late Gothic style, with Renaissance and fortified details. At the front, part of a late-medieval necropolis was excavated with anthropomorphic tombs and slabs that also extended below the temple and the subsoil of the castle, where there is a fragment of a decorated sarcophagus. Remnants have been found of the previous church, which could be Romanesque.
The castle-palace, for its part, largely maintains the essential structure of the 14th century, with numerous reforms from the first half of the 16th century, carried out by order of Miquel Sarriera, which affected the interior layout and decoration. By the year 1725, there were other reforms and later, the building was converted into a farmer's house. It is a two-storey building made up of three ravines, which, together with the church, frame a small interior patio with a trapezial area. In 1931 it was declared a national monument.
In the vicinity of the church and the palace there are scattered remnants of the wall, some remains of which are found in the houses of the village. The most well-preserved element is the north-east tower-portal, with a square floor plan and a sloping door. Another cylindrical tower to the south-west of the village is preserved, fitted between the houses.
There are some 17th and 18th century buildings that are of remarkable interest in terms of popular architecture on the northern alleyways in the Main Square, located outside the walls and in the main street, and where there are houses with voussoir portals, shields and some decorated windows. In the mountainous part of the municipality there are small areas with pine trees and holm oaks, and vineyards and olive groves. In the rest of the fields, mainly dry land, cereals, fodder and legumes are planted. There is a small sector with irrigation, which uses groundwater, dedicated to vegetables, corn and fodder. Poultry farms and breeding of beef and pork, with some derivative industrial activities, complete the economy.
Halfway between Peratallada and Vulpellac, the medieval elements of Canapost are made up of the church of Sant Esteve and the medieval necropolis with significant monolithic sarcophagus in sandstone.
If we approach the church of Sant Esteve de Canapost we can see the remains of a medieval cemetery discovered from the archaeological excavations carried out in this area.
At the moment, the archaeological remains that can be seen correspond to a necropolis or cemetery from medieval times. However, on top of these remains, there was a part of a necropolis from modern times (16th-18th centuries). As it may be, the medieval necropolis, with an approximate dating of between the tenth and fifteenth centuries, was located in the vicinity of the church and under the burial site from modern times. The excavation process was complicated since many modern tombs partially cut through some medieval burial sites.
Between the months of November of 2004 and May of 2005, the City council realised an archaeological excavation around the church of Sant Esteve de Canapost that enabled them to locate 85 anthropomorphous tombs (in the form of a person) made with slabs and 18 sarcophagi carved into sandy rock that was very typical of the area.
All the visible tombs are medieval and during the excavation several ceramic pots were found next to the deceased and scallop shells, carried from Santiago de Compostela by a pilgrim more than 600 years ago.
This place is worth a visit to enjoy the peace and tranquillity that it breathes and to observe the discovered archaeological remains as it is one of the medieval necropolis with the most spectacular stone sarcophagi in the whole of Catalonia.
The church of Sant Esteve de Canapost is one of the most notable and perhaps unknown elements of our municipal heritage despite it being one of the architectural references of Romanesque Catalonia.
The church of Sant Esteve de Canapost is one of the most notable and perhaps unknown elements of our municipal heritage despite it being one of the architectural references of Romanesque Catalonia.
The church currently has two juxtaposed buildings, one is pre-Romanesque with a nave, a transept and a trapezial apse; and a Romanesque one with a semicircular apse. It is made up of three easily identifiable associated areas. The main area, in pre-Romanesque style, configures the nucleus of the church and was built around the 9th or 10th century. Its transept stands out, which is much higher than the nave's roof, with a well-marked horseshoe vault. Later, between the 11th and 12th centuries, the square designed bell tower was joined, to the south, and a parallel nave, to the north, in Romanesque style.
The front, where the door of the main entrance to the temple is now open, dates back to the 18th century and it was never finished. Indeed, behind the apses we can see, on the floor, the remains of the rose window that must have completed the façade. The church's invocation is dedicated to Sant Esteve and Sant Clet, the third pope of the Christian church that held office between 76 and 88. The church had a remarkable gothic altarpiece, of the Mare de Déu de Llet, that today is conserved in the Museum of Art in Girona. Next to the church there is a late medieval necropolis.
Romanesque paintings
On the main altar and around the transept you can see remains of Romanesque paintings of extraordinary heritage value. In the eastern part you can glimpse a horse character, which could correspond to the biblical scene of the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem and could date from the 12th century. On the opposite side, there is a scene of the Last Supper that experts place in the 15th century. They occupy about 10 square metres and were made from earth colours, made with the combination of iron oxide and lime minerals. The polychromes were discovered in 1999 as a result of some samples made from some pieces of paint located a long time ago. They were restored in 2002.
The ethnological heritage of Forallac is made up of farms, springs, paths, lime kilns and ice wells. All of them are testimonies of the traditional activities of the exploitation of forests.
The springs have always been linked to the work and life of its inhabitants, they are from those magical places that have collected many events over time. There are many springs that exist in the Forallac area, particularly in the area of ??the municipality included in the area of ??the Gavarres massif. Some of them are very famous for the quality of the water. The geomorphological characteristics of the massif are the origin of the large number of existing springs. This fact is a legacy of great natural value and is an interesting attraction. The Gavarres are an area with granite and filonian rocks of almost zero porosity, where the few existing water reserves are associated with fractures, diasclasis or areas of alteration. This is a medium in which the water circulation is very slow, due to its low permeability, and where the water uses discontinuities of the terrain to circulate: faults, diasclasis, contact between different materials ... In fact, it is often observed how it is in these discontinuities where most of the sources are located.
Fonteta Spring
Fonteta Spring is one of the most interesting springs of Forallac. It is considered by the inhabitants as the first spring, although over time it was forgotten because another was built in the church square. This spring contains water throughout the year and has a sandstone structure in the form of a vault with steps that give access to the water. There are public sinks nearby.
Santa Susanna Spring
The spring of Santa Susanna de Peralta, as it is now, was built in 1704, although historical documentation is available where it is mentioned long before that date. It is located under the protection of an impressive oak forest, just beside Peralta stream and the camí de Santa Susanna. It is a very welcoming place and it invites you to stay for a while at any time of the year, like the families who used to come to stay over for picnics. The water sprouted through a stone parapet that is almost buried. It was formerly used by the peasantry of the area.
Another of the most surprising resources for water use in the past is that of ice making. This industry is already documented in the Gavarres massif since the middle of the 16th century and reaches its maximum splendour between the middle of the 17th century and the end of the 18th century. In the Gavarres, the remains of eleven ice wells have been located.
They are large structures, built on the north side with stone and covered with a stone vault. The activity of storing ice in an isolated area comes from the need to have ice throughout the year. Ice was a product of first necessity until the expansion of modern refrigeration systems, both for the preservation of food and its healing properties.
The most significant one in Forallac is probably that of Mas Cals de Fitor. It is a large underground tank that was used for more than 200 years to keep the ice from the winter freezing of the water from the stream of Mas Petit. At that time, due to a short ice age, it was much colder than now, which allowed the development of this ice industry. Probably, the business had a fairly positive return because the well was located at the foot of the Camí Ral which until the middle of the 19th century connected the port of Palamós and Girona. The well has a trapezoidal floor and was probably built in the 13th century.
In the districts of Fonteta and Sant Climent de Peralta there were also more than twenty lime kilns, four of which have disappeared altogether.
The others are still visible today, although they are in poor condition and in most cases covered with thick vegetation. Until the first third of our century, Forallac specialised in the manufacture of lime and had the ordinary demand of a very extensive region. Part of the lime was loaded by rail and boats and travelled to Barcelona. There are also the visible remains of many quarries always near to the kilns. Fifty years ago everybody from Fonteta and Sant Climent had some or other link with the lime industry: in woodworking, in the quarry, in the kilns, and lime shipment.
There were also many quarries, located very close to the kilns, in order to make the stone transport easier. In addition to the eight quarries we have located, there were other less significant ones that were opened in different places, as and when.
This is the old chapel of the castle-palace that is located just next to it, in the town of Vulpellac. The building dates from the 16th century, in a late Gothic style with Renaissance details and it is fortified. It is a one-nave building with exterior buttresses, a polygonal apse in the interior and semicircular on the outside, and a tiled roof on two sides. It has a very peculiar west façade, with large ashlars that are very well worked on the upper part, where two bells are hung. The access door is in the form of an ogival arc and has a lintel and a tympanum without decoration. The only ornamental elements of this door are the bases of the three arcades, with nature reliefs and persons heads. At the centre of the façade there is a simple rose window. The building is completed with pillars that serve as a base for a bell tower with an unfinished wall. The bell tower, which has a square base and is very stylized, rises up the north-west corner of the church. The interior, covered with a vault, conserves the Shield of the Sarriera in some projecting mouldings.
This is a Romanesque temple with two naves raised to the east by semicircular apses, built with large square ashlars. On the façade the front door stands out, with a half-pointed arch, followed by mouldings, a simple rose window and three brackets that may have held beams of a porch that has disappeared. The front of the nave has a pointed vault with three toral arches; in the north one the vault is followed by a tubular section and another pointed one. On the apse on this side a semicylindrical tower was erected that provides the monument with a very unique silhouette.
The current temple preserves the Romanesque nave, from the 11th century, which was later modified. The Romanesque apparatus can be seen on the western façade, where a Renaissance door and a rose window were opened. The barrel vault, which is plastered, must be the old cover. It is fortified and the Romanesque vault was replaced in the 18th century by a crucifix with a dome and a carved apse. The chapels were added later and the bell tower is from 1755. At the Museum of Art of Girona (old Diocese) there is a Renaissance gothic cross from Fonteta.
Surrounded by forests and fields, the church of Santa Susanna de Peralta is a small Romanesque temple with more than one thousand years of history and extraordinary beauty. The main features that give this building its personality are the bell tower with two half-pointed arches and the nave with a semicircular apse.
It is located about 200 metres north of the castle, in a hollow beside the right bank of the Peralta stream. It has a single nave with a semicircular apse that was the subject of remarkable reforms in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is in a good state of conservation thanks to the significant restoration that took place in 1976 and 1977. The apse is decorated with Lombard slats or lashes, and has a double-bottom window and rounded arches.
At the north side of the temple, at the far end of the nave, there is a square-bell tower that was unfinished or partly demolished. At the moment only the bottom part remains up to the height of the cover of the nave. On the east wall of this tower a bell tower was built with two rounded arches on rectangular pillars, also Romanesque. The interior of the bell tower is connected to the nave by means of a mid-point arch, from the baroque period.
This is one of the jewels of the Gavarres massif. It is a Romanesque church, which stands majestic on a small plain that appears in the ridge formed by Puig d'Arriells and Puig Gros. The most singular and characteristic element of the building is its great bell tower, visible from most of the massif. It has a rectangular floor plan, with openings on all the three floors and a pyramidal roof covering four slopes.
The openings on the upper floor are twin windows, with rounded arches, circular crossbones and trapezoidal capitals. This floor, which has been re-created, differs from the lower one, in terms of the era and constructive technique. Its vertical wall is made from sealed and polished ashlars with calcareous stone of regular dimensions, without oversized pieces on the edges.
The Lombard influence of Catalan Romanesque is presented in the decoration of the windows on the upper floor of the bell tower, with an arcade frieze. Together with the rectory and the cemetery, it forms a small isolated ensemble.
It has two naves covered by two semicircular apses. It seems that the oldest one is at the front, the apse of which has an apparatus in the form of a spike and the nave has the remains of Romanesque mural paintings. The pointed vault is at the rear. On the threshold of the entrance to the church is the tombstone of the rector who died in 1817, at the hands of bandits who plundered the church. It can be read, in non-academic Latin, how he died.
The act of consecration
In 1989 a copy of the endowment text or the act of consecration of the church was discovered in the Capitular Archive of Girona, which Guillem Molas made in the 18th century. Thanks to this document, we know that on 29 January 948, Bishop Gotmar of Girona came to Fitor to consecrate the church, which had been built by the presbyter Altimir and the Levites Placià and Tassi, with the help of all the faithful. The new church was given, as it was the custom, a diversity of elements from different people. The donations consisted of land, vineyards and "mountains".
This is one of the most important buildings in the Catalan Romanesque style. It is made up of three easily identifiable associated areas. The main area, in pre-Romanesque style, configures the nucleus of the church and was built around the 9th or 10th century. Its transept stands out, which is much higher than the nave's roof, with a well-marked horseshoe vault. Later, between the 11th and 12th centuries, the square designed bell tower was joined, to the south, and a parallel nave, to the north, in Romanesque style.
The front, where the door of the main entrance to the temple is now open, dates back to the 18th century and it was never finished. Indeed, behind the apses we can see, on the floor, the remains of the rose window that must have completed the façade. The church's invocation is dedicated to Sant Esteve and Sant Clet, the third pope of the Christian church that held office between 76 and 88.
The church had a remarkable gothic altarpiece, of the Mare de Déu de Llet, that today is conserved in the Museum of Art in Girona. Next to the church there is a late medieval necropolis.
Romanesque paintings
On the main altar and around the transept you can see remains of Romanesque paintings of extraordinary heritage value. In the eastern part you can glimpse a horse character, which could correspond to the biblical scene of the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem and could date from the 12th century. On the opposite side, there is a scene of the Last Supper that experts place in the 15th century. They occupy about 10 square metres and were made from earth colours, made with the combination of iron oxide and lime minerals. The polychromes were discovered in 1999 as a result of some samples made from some pieces of paint located a long time ago. They were restored in 2002.
The remains of the Mare de Déu dels Socors evoke the beauty and majesty of one of the most unknown temples of our architectural heritage. This singular chapel, dating from the 17th century, is located on the west side of Canapost, on the hill that gives it its name. It was all backed with a defence tower attached to the rear, and lost the roof and part of the stones that formed the openings, most likely as a result of a plundering. Despite its charm and value, it is a rather unknown element, which is not found in any of the tourist guides in the area. A visit is highly recommended, especially because of its privileged location, from which there are magnificent views. Josep Pla considered it one of the most privileged viewpoints of the Empordà.
This was built two kilometres north of the old quarter (deeper within the Gavarres massif), in a less remote place than most of the many farms that are spread through the area. It can be easily seen from the road from Girona to Palamós. The parochial temple is an 18th century building, with a nave with side chapels and a polygonal chancel. On the western façade there is the rectangular limestone portal. It is decorated with a pediment and hemispheres in relief. There is a niche, now without an image, and above it in circular relief, the IHS anagram. We can also see the inscription that informs us of the time when it was built: (begun 1737 - completed 1751).
