Travel in Sant Feliu de Guixols - Spain - Spanien - Europe - Culture

Sant Feliu de Guixols - History

Sant Feliu de Guíxols, with a present day population of over seventeen thousand, is framed within a highly defined geographical context. Administratively it forms a part of the county of Baix Emporda, yet it is also attached by way of Vall d’Aro –running between Gavarres and l'Ardenya- to the Gironès area.

The first permanent Iberian settlement was found in the Guixols hill –today known as "Fortim" or "Salvament"- at the start of the 4^th century BC. A few centuries later the Iberians populating the plain were to experience the long and slow process of what we have come to call "Romanization" followed, much later, by the influence of Christianity.

At a much later date –in the first half of the 10^th century AD- a Benedictine monastery was founded, at Sant Feliu, coming to exercise feudal domain over the area, which lasted until the definitive crisis of the Ancien Régime (in 1835). From that period the town still maintains the testimony of the Romanesque and Gothic church, along with other structures of a certain architectural importance: "Porta Ferrada", the "Fum" and "Corn" towers (10^th c.).

In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, however, the town gained a certain economic and social importance, through fishing, fish-salting, net manufacture and boat building.

Craft work with cork first began in the second half of the 18^th century along with the export of cork stopper, this industry is still kept up in Sant Feliu.

If cork has been the element –after monastic power- that most marked the character of the local population, the "Guixolencs", in modern times it has been the social phenomenon of tourism that has had most influence in the development of the lifestyle of the town.

The most characteristic aspect of Sant Feliu, after the monumental area of the "Arc de Sant Benet" (1747) and the monastery building (17^th c.), is the urban space where we presently find the Municipal Archives, the City Museum and, provisionally, the University.

Sant Feliu became increasingly industrialised during the 19^th century –mainly through the cork industry- while at the same time many "Guixolencs" took the opportunity to emigrate to the Americas.

In the second half of the century a notable urban expansion took place, based on the detailed plans of the architect General Guitart. One of the urban spaces –lauded by many writers and by all visitors- is undoubtedly the famous "Passeig", where we still find such peculiar buildings as the "Casino dels Nois", the "Casa Patxot", "Can Sibils", etc. providing a comprehensive sample of local turn of the century architecture. The hermitage of Sant Elm offers a marvellous mirador of the sea and the coast heading down towards Tossa. To the east, on the Guíxols hill we find the Salvament building, offering a panoramic view down onto the port.

Much of the historical development of the city, as well as of the cork industry, can be traced at the History Museum, located in the monastery itself.

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