10 SANT FELIU DE GUIXOLS PLACES YOU HAVE TO SEE AND CAN’T MISS

We are going to show the 10 most emblematic places that we consider you can’t miss if you visit Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

Sant Feliu de Guíxols is a coastal city, in the heart of the Costa Brava, it has a very marked historical legacy it started as  the Iberian town, and we will travel in history through the Roman, Romanesque, Gothic and Modernism.

It is fishing village with large shipyards, its condition as a natural port made it become the port of reference in the province of Girona, ahead with the textile industry and especially cork, historically cork made the city rich and prosperous. Its surroundings of its bay between the sunny water and the shelter of the shady forest brought the first tourists, the growth of tourism and gradually the industry, its commercial port started to fade and the port became the current fishing and sports port that provides more than 400 moorings, with sailing, kayaking, diving centres and many activities.

To understand the legacy that the history of Sant Feliu has left us, we suggest you start with places of general architectural or landscape interest, such as the Hermitage of Sant Elm, the beach of Sant Pol, the walkways close to the sea “camino de ronda”, the Casino de la Constancia and the Monestir.

Once you get there you can remember the anecdote that Ferran Agulló, a journalist, poet and politician, winner of distinguished awards, son of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, in 1908 was inspired by the Hermitage of Sant Elm and its extraordinary views and bravery of the sea, He was the man who baptized the area as “nostra costa brava” known today as the “Costa Brava“.

You can also enjoy the dune park, a park with natural dunes that preserve the entire natural environment of the bay, such as the sand, plants and vegetation of the area. The beach is about a kilometre long and is located within a totally natural bay which has conserved the entire part of the sea as nature such as the sand, some banks of posidonia, , the surrounding landscapes with little coves and some caves that if you do a KAYAKING  EXCURSION with us we can show you, you won’t regret it! You can get there by walk through the “caminos de ronda” if you go by foot  from the town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols or from the next beach connected by walk the Conca beach

You can arrive to the port doing the typical walk of the local people passing in front of the Fortí, the Salvament, the fishermen’s shop and the old Tinglado, you can reach the lighthouse through the 450 meter long pier and where we can find the lighthouse located  at the end, green with three flashers that tirelessly signals to the boats that sail through the area.

It takes about a one hour to do it, you will discover on the way Cala Jonca, Cala Atmetller and all the small coves near S’agaró such as Cala de Peix or Sa Caleta, and it’s great views.

It has very curious features such as the entrance doors that recall both a Catalan medieval keyed door and an Arabian arch door. Guitart, therefore, manages to maintain the equidistance necessary to naturally merge two distant architectures in time and space.

Popularly known as “the casino dels Nois” (“boys’ casino”) since it was built as a social building and that “noi” in Sant Feliu was understood as a progressive person, activities such as management of a library, discussion forums, dances, etc., currently it has a restaurant and bar downstairs and various activities are held upstairs.

In the Monestir we find the “Tower of the Corn” square, in front of the “Torre del  Fum“ (smoke), the names come from their defensive function, when they received attacks mainly from pirate ships a member of the ecclesiastical community climbed the tower of the Corn to blow the horn, an instrument made of horn, to warn the townspeople that they had to take refuge within the walls of the Monestir, at the same time they lit a fire at Torre del Fum so that those who were further away working the fields and could not hear the sound of the horn could see the alert signals.

In front of the Monestir, at the Plaça del Monestir a few meters away we find l’Arc de Sant Benet, a portal of the Baroque wall, in the middle of the 18th century the Monestir is provided with new defensive walls, of which some remains of the last phase, as is the case of l’Arc de Sant Benet, (1747), which was the main door. The current door is not the same as the original one since it disappeared during the Civil War of 1936-39 and it was repositioned in 1999, with a work by Domènec Fita.

In summary, the Monestir and church complex present the stylistic evolution of architecture that Sant Feliu has experienced from the Roman foundations to the great display of Baroque.

Starting with the Iberians, there lies an Iberian settlement from the 5th century BC. Iberian remains have been found approving that more than 2,000 years ago, in front of the sea you can find the large norays that were used to moor the large boats that visited and traded with the people in the 15th century. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was the quarantine site of those affected by the plague since at that time it was the place furthest from the town.

In the 18th century, due to the war that continued with England and after the bombing that Sant Feliu suffered in June 1747, he was finally able to install 2 of the 4 cannons ordered to protect the city in the so-called Fortí.

And the building that can be seen from all the coastal points of Sant Feliu, El Salvament, a neoclassical building and inaugurated in 1890, erected by the Spanish Society of Shipwrecked Rescue, where a square tower stands out and below it is the Room with a tailor-made door where, at the beginning of this, an unsinkable rowing boat was kept, which was in charge of leaving the days of bad sea when there were shipwrecks. In the building they had cannons that shot the shipwrecked boat out if it was close enough.

Now we are going to show you the places where the population’s inhabitants do the main life, we will see the Carrer Major, Rambla Vidal and the municipal market, which are the busiest places with the largest influx of local people and also the epicenter of the activity.

Sant Feliu had at that time many “mestres d’aixa” (master wood shipyards) who were required by the Barcelona authorities more than once to help them in their boat constructions. Sailing at the time was not an easy , since they ran the risk of being shipwrecked due to storms or falling into the hands of corsairs, pirates or Saracens, and having to pay a rescue fee to free themselves. The road where we are has received several names: carrer de la Rambla, carrer dels Arbres and portal del Peix. This last name was motivated because the fish auction was held at the crossroads between the current Vidal boulevard and the Carrer Mayor.

Currently the Rambla connected to the “carrer major”, is the center of the city, you can find  shops such as shops, bars, restaurants among the emblematic modernist buildings that surround it.

Also note that, like most populations in the contiguities of the market, all kinds of commerce grow where it connects with the Rambla Vidal, outlined above, and among all its streets.

Finally, you can also enjoy cultural activities such as the Thyssen Museum, or the Porta Ferrada Festival that we add below.

Hopefully you have enjoyed  our selection of the 10 places you should’t miss if you visit Sant Feliu de Guíxols.