Girona

The first stop on your getaway will be Llanars, a small medieval village located between Camprodon and Vilallonga. Its historic centre is structured around the Romanesque church of Sant Esteve, a 12th-century construction that stands out above all for its impressive entrance and the ironwork on its door. Very close to Llanars, you’ll find Camprodon, an ancient village that offers spectacular panoramic mountain views, Romanesque temples and modernist summer houses. However, the emblem of Camprodon is undoubtedly the Nou bridge. Built in the late 12th century, it has become the most popular and photographed image of the village. A visit to the monastery of Sant Pere is also a must, a Romanesque temple dating from the mid-12th century. And if you have time, we strongly recommend going to Beget, considered one of the most beautiful villages in Catalonia, with cobbled streets, medieval bridges and the majestic Romanesque church of Sant Cristòfol.

The next stop on your trip will be Sant Joan de les Abadesses, a historic village closely linked to its monastery. It’s one of the most important monuments of the Catalan Romanesque and the first female monastery in Catalonia. Afterwards, you can continue your tour by visiting the Abbatial Palace, built in the 14th century, which now houses the Interpretation Centre of the Myth of Count Arnau. We also recommend taking a walk around the old town of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, where you’ll find the remains of the wall that once surrounded the municipality, and cross the emblematic Vell bridge.

Finally, go to Ripoll, the capital of Ripollès. There, you simply must visit the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, one of the most beautiful and evocative monuments in Catalonia. The doorway, basilica and cloister make up a unique ensemble. This municipality is also home to the first ethnographic museum in Catalonia, which invites you to take a tour and learn about the history, traditions and culture of Ripoll.

Autumn is also a great time to enjoy some of the hiking trails on offer in the region, such as the itinerary that leads from Beget to Rocabruna along the old smugglers' paths.

And if you’re a fan of biking, you can’t leave without cycling a section of the Iron and Coal Route, which connects the county capital with Sant Joan de les Abadesses.

With spring already well underway, a delightful stay awaits us in the south of the Costa Brava, where we’ll discover some of the most fascinating natural and cultural corners of the maritime La Selva region. We begin our getaway in Blanes, more specifically at the Sant Joan Castle, a Romanesque-style building that was built to keep a lookout for maritime pirate raids. Located at the top of the Sant Joan hill, the castle offers a panoramic view of Blanes.

In this town, we also can’t miss the route of hermitages, all built in strategic locations around Blanes to serve a double function, both religious and defensive at the same time. Along this route, we’ll get to know the hermitages of Esperança, Sant Francesc and Santa Bàrbara, among others, each of them with their own history, legends and curiosities.

Something else that characterises this region is its impressive Mediterranean gardens. In Blanes, we’ll find the Marimurtra botanical garden, a paradise of the plant world with over 4,000 species from five different continents. Very close by, in Lloret, there’s also the Santa Clotilde gardens, located on a cliff. A space full of nature, scents, colours and tranquillity with an unbeatable view of the Costa Brava.

Still in Lloret de Mar, we’ll visit a unique modernist cemetery, one of the prime examples of 19th-century funerary art in Catalonia that still preserves the traces of its Indiano legacy. On the seafront, we can also visit Can Garriga, one of the most important Indiano houses in the city, which is currently home to the Museum of the Sea. A place that will take us on a journey through the history of Lloret de Mar, from the time when ships were built on its beach to the voyages to America.

We’ll round off our getaway in Tossa de Mar, where we can take in the spectacular Vila Vella, an imposing walled city built between the 12th and 14th centuries as a defence against pirate raids. The interior of Vila Vella is a must-see, made up of winding picturesque streets and buildings with a lot of charm. At the highest point, we find the Tossa lighthouse, built on the old castle that overlooked the territory and which has now become a point of reference for people interested in gaining insight into the world of lighthouses.

A proposal brought to you in collaboration with Descobrir magazine.

Josep Pla was born on 8 March 1897 in Carrer Nou de Palafrugell, number 49. More than a century later, this address is now the starting point of a route that takes you to all the places in the Empordà that had a bearing on the life and work of one of the most widely-read writers in Catalan literature. It is from here that the route continues to Carrer Torres i Jonama number 56—where the Pla family went to live in 1904—passing by Carrer Estret—which lent its name to the novel he published in 1956—continuing on to Plaça Nova, once an olive grove outside the town walls. This is where the Cercle Mercan­til is located, formerly a social centre for the well-to-do, as well as the Centre Fraternal, a social club for the working classes that is still fully operational. The Josep Pla Foundation designed this route in 1993 to draw attention to the places in Palafrugell that influenced Pla, as well as to enrich any reading of his work by linking literature with the heritage and landscape that inspired it. The route, however, is not restricted to the municipality in which Pla was born. It includes other places, such as Calella, where it passes along the Mirador dels Burricaires with its views over Port Bo and Canadell beach, and Llofriu, where it crosses the old town before arriving at the cemetery, where Pla is buried. As well as highlighting the places Pla describes in his books, the route also brings to light other aspects of heritage, such as the Sant Sebastià lighthouse, the Joaquim Turró vantage point, the lookout tower and hermitage, Pals—the Hores Tower, the church of Sant Pere—and the Cap Roig Gardens, just to name a few.
 
After a joint investigation by the Catalonia - Ullastret Archaeological Museum and the Josep Pla Foundation to research Pla's association with the Ullastret archaeological site, the route also includes this location with a walk along the Sant Andreu hill. This walk evokes Pla's meeting with the pioneering archaeologists who first excavated the site. In fact, this year marks 75 years since the excavation work began and visits to commemorate this anniversary will be held on 9 July, 6 August and 17 September. The literary event on 17 September, for Pla's avid readers, will include refreshments.

Over the course of time many legends have grown up around the lake of Banyoles, legends that have passed from generation to generation. A trip around the area is a good way of finding out about its history, its heritage and, perhaps, it is also a way of unravelling what is true from what is false in these curious legends.
 
The tour begins in La Pes­quera d’en Lero, where you will find the municipality's tourist information office. The building dates from 1886 and previously, amongst other uses, it was where the landing stage was for pleasure craft as well as housing a souvenir shop. It is a good place to appreciate the extent of the lake, the largest lake in Catalonia. If you set off towards Porqueres, you come to the Romanesque church of Santa Maria, outstanding on account of its decorative elements such as the interior arches and the semi-circular arched doorway, with its frieze of figurative medallions. In fact, there are many religious buildings in Banyoles that can be visited, such as the monastery of Sant Esteve, and the remains of the convent of Sant Martirià.
 
The lake route continues to Can Morgat, a farmhouse on top of a hill surrounded by holm oaks, a reminder of one of the legends concerning the formation of the lake. To return to the tour's point of departure continue onwards towards La Draga, a park to the side of the lake which contains La Draga Neolithic Park. This is one of the oldest agricultural sites in the north-east of the Iberian peninsula and one of the first lakeside Neolithic settlements in Europe. Here you can see reproductions of ancient huts and activities there, for all ages, give an idea of what it was like to live there in Neolithic times.
 
In addition to the trip around the lake, there are other outstanding places to be seen in Banyoles, such as the Llotja del Tint, the Pia Almoina and the town walls, amongst other attractions. On the way to Porqueres the tour can be extended, this time by car, to visit the studio-cum-workshop of Carles Fontserè, the renowned poster artist, illustrator, painter, writer and photographer. It is in Can Montguix, and on display in the house are some of the artist's paintings, some personal items, books and photographs, which give an insight into Fontserè's creative universe. He took up residence in Porqueres in the early 1970s upon his return from exile in various countries.

An excursion proposed in collaboration with the magazine Descobrir