Village
Espolla is a wine-growing village of 398 inhabitants (INE 2025) at the foot of the Sierra de l'Albera, in the Alt Empordà, within the Natural Site of National Interest of the same name, with the largest concentration of dolmens and menhirs in the comarca, one of them located in the village's own square. Its source of wealth is livestock farming and, above all, viticulture, with DO Empordà wineries open to visitors, including the oldest wine cooperative in the comarca. In its old quarter, with narrow streets around the 18th-century parish church of Sant Jaume, the medieval castle and Cal Marquès, a fortified house from the 14th-15th centuries, also stand. Its municipal area also preserves several pre-Romanesque hermitages, such as that of Sant Martí de Baussitges.
Nature
Megalithic dolmen built between 2700 and 2500 BC, one of the numerous ones preserved in the municipality of Espolla, in the Alt Empordà, not far from the boundary with Sant Climent Sescebes. Located on a 150-metre hill with wide views over the Empordà plain, it is a gallery grave with a polygonal chamber facing south-east, 2.50 metres long by 2 metres high, built entirely of granite. It was already serving as a boundary marker in 1110; in 1866 it was visited by a French scholar, and in 1879 it was made known by the Espolla schoolteacher Antoni Balmanya. First excavated in 1920 by Lluís Pericot and Pere Bosch Gimpera, who found a flint dagger in the chamber, it was restored at the end of the 20th century by GESEART to consolidate its most deteriorated parts.
Nature
A 992 m peak in the sierra de l'Albera, also known as Pic or Puig de Sallfort, surrounded by centuries-old cork oak forests and the starting point of several hiking routes, including the GR-10, which climbs from the Coll de Banyuls. It marks the border between Spain and France, on a boundary shared by Espolla, Argelès-sur-Mer and Banyuls-sur-Mer.
Nature
A wide pass in the sierra de l'Albera serving as a natural crossing point between French Northern Catalonia and the Alt Empordà, surrounded by forests and mountain pastures. Situated at 357 metres between the municipalities of Rabós and Banyuls-sur-Mer, in the French Roussillon, it is one of only three road passes across the eastern end of the Pyrenees, and is reached from Espolla or from Rabós. Formerly called Coll d'Espills, it was one of the routes linking Southern and Northern Catalonia since Visigothic times, when King Wamba used it to cross the Albera on his way to Septimania. At the neighbouring Coll del Pastor Mort, where the paved road now runs, there is a monument to General De Gaulle's call for the liberation of France and several signs about the Spanish Civil War.
Nature
A beech wood on the northern slope of the Albera range, below Puig Neulós, offering a display of colour in autumn.
Nature
A small pool of temporary waters about 20 metres in diameter, surrounded by cork oak woods, located among the rocky outcrops known as els castellars, within the Sant Climent Sescebes military enclosure and difficult to access. It is notable for its community of watercress beds with sweet-grass and quillwort swards, and its altitude, higher than that of other wetlands of the Albera, favours the presence of the rare fern Ophioglossum azoricum. Despite its small size, it is the only place in Catalonia where the buttercup Ranunculus nodiflorus has been found, which makes it, as a Mediterranean temporary pool, a priority habitat of interest. It is part of the Natura 2000 Network site L'Albera and is in very good conservation condition.
Activity
The Centre BTT Salines-Bassegoda is a network of 33 mountain-bike routes totalling 600 kilometres of waymarked trails, covering 17 municipalities in the interior of the Alt Empordà, with several reception points and levels of difficulty. It is managed by the Consorci Salines-Bassegoda, established in September 2007 by the Diputació de Girona and the local town councils with the aim of preserving and enhancing the comarca's landscape, cultural and environmental heritage, and of promoting sustainable tourism development.
Activity
The Fira de l'Oli i l'Olivera d'Espolla, in the Alt Empordà (Girona), is the first fair of the year in the comarca: it is held in the streets of the village on the Sunday following the feast of Sant Sebastià, 20 January, and is dedicated to olive oil with the protected designation of origin Empordà. The local cooperative markets its production under the Formentals brand. The fair includes tastings and visits to mills and olive groves in the municipality.
Activity
A protected designation of origin covering olive groves in the Alt Empordà; some local mills, such as those in Espolla, open their doors to show how the oil is made.
Nature
A prehistoric standing stone, part of the important concentration of menhirs and dolmens in the Albera range, visitable on a circular route from Espolla.
Nature
The menhir del Castellà, also known as the menhir de Roques Blanques, stands about 2 km northwest of the centre of Espolla, in the Alt Empordà, and forms part of the group of dolmens of Espolla. It is a granite block measuring 3.45 by 0.90 by 0.75 metres and weighing about 3,600 kilos, dated to the Neolithic. It lay fallen due to erosion of the ground until it was identified in 1971 by Joan Calverol i Puquet, published by Lluís Esteva in 1974 and 1977, and restored at the summer solstice of 1988. It is listed in the Inventory of the Archaeological and Palaeontological Heritage of Catalonia under number 5520, alongside other nearby menhirs such as that of la Murtra or that of Vilartolí, in Sant Climent Sescebes, although the access path is today very deteriorated.