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Sant Feliu de Guixols          Sant Feliu de Guixols          Sant Feliu de Guixols

Description of Sant Feliu De Guixols

The town of Sant Feliu and its immediate surroundings constitute an area appealing clean living. Sant Feliu is the natural capital of this small territory also formed by the villages close to Santa Cristina and Castell-Platja d'Aro, which with their landscapes and their history bring new elements of diversity to the area of Low Empordà and accentuate its varied and open aspect.

Sant Feliu de Guíxols is a clearly Mediterranean city, located at the heart of Costa Brava and surrounded by hills covered with wood with pines and holm oaks.

Thanks to its moderate and pleasant climate, Sant Feliu de Guíxols is an ideal place to take a break at any time of the year. 

The city preserves a rich historical inheritance which surprises by the importance of his monuments.

The coast of Sant Feliu presents a landscape full of contrasts, with cliffs which break the small splits and bays of fine sand.   

Located on the southern slope of the area, on a small bay closed by two rock points which form a natural port, Sant Feliu seems to observe with a certain distance the tourist and urbanistic development more spectacular from the other villages of the littoral. In contrast with the urbanistic explosion and a certain improvisation in the creation and the growth of other cities, Sant Feliu presents a more balanced and ordered image, a clean city which has seen a significant growth for many years before the great economic development initiated in the Sixties.

Visiters to the city are initially attracted by its splendid Promenade of the Sea, urban spaces which reflect the different side that Sant feliu brings to the area. With the difference the walks are much more recent than the other cities of the coast, this walk was initiated in 1834 with the plantation of the first two lines of trees and which in 1884 had already the five current lines and an aspect very similar to that that it presents today. Also date from the last century the prolongation towards the east of this first walk, prolongation known under the name of Promenade of Guixols. They both form a whole of great quality which was the scene for excellence moments of diversion and leisures of many generations of inhabitants of Sant Feliu. "What would be Sant Feliu without its Maritime Walk? "the historian Lluís Esteve wrote, summarizing his importance there and justifying at the same time the pride felt by the children of this city. 

Of all the buildings on the walk there is one which particularly draws the attention for its singular forms and its decoration. It is the Casino of Nols, built at the end of the last century spent in a néo-mudéjar style, located exactly at the meeting of the two walks. In the center of Sant Feliu, other interesting buildings from various times and other notable places, among which two ramblas perpendicular to the Walk, await those which will engage in the streets of the historical center.

The city also has a monument of great interest. It is the Monastery Benedictine of Sant Feliu to which refer to the documents dating from the Xth century. Very close to the Monastery one can find houses of peasants and fishermen before the current village was formed. The early times Monastery, were of the most significant and the most important, remains a group of Romance buildings formed interalia by two turns (that of Fum and that of Corn) and la Porta Ferrada. La Porta Ferrada (Xth century) is one of the constructions most characteristic and representative of the village. Its base is made up of three arcades whose form points out a horseshoe, the detail which gave it its name. Its function is not exactly known but its particular forms and dimensions offer a very particular and very interesting image.

The Monastery has other large spaces which accomodates the current Municipal Musée. One can visit there various rooms which represent the history of Sant Feliu and of its area with the exposition of various collections which go from the prehistoric archaeological discoveries to the tools used by the industry of the cork-caper plant which made so much thrive the area with XIX^th and XX^th centuries. In the Monastery, one finds also temporary showrooms and significant Historical Archive. 

Walking in certain places of the city and of the Monastery has us for one moment far away from the sea. It is advisable to return there to discover other pretty interesting corners. For example, it is necessary to go in north-eastern direction on the beach of Sant pol, a small bay which became a significant tourist place.

Closer to the town of Sant Feliu is Espigo of Guixols, from where, as the tradition explains it, the martyr Sant Feliu Africà would have been thrown to water with a millstone attached to the neck. This legend which evokes the first centuries of our era is logically at the origin of the name of the city.

On the other side of bay of Sant Feliu is a place which must be on the list of the principal obligatory visits. It is Sant Elm, a mountain which descends towards the sea at its summit there is a small hermitage the XVIII^th century. Considering its situation, Sant Elm constitutes an excellent watchtower which makes it possible to discover a vast extension of rock coast to the south. The inhabitants of Sant Feliu consider that it was there, that at the beginning of the last century the journalist Ferran Agulló used for the first time the name of "Costa Brava" who became and the fortune Christian name of our littoral. A monolythe was installed on this splendid watchtower to point out that today to us.

Pictures of Sant Feliu De Guixols