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Church of Sant Martí d'Empúries

l'Escala, Alt Empordà, Girona

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Church of Sant Martí d'Empúries

Monument · l'Escala, Alt Empordà, Girona

A late Gothic temple from the 16th century, built from 1507 onward in the heart of the medieval settlement of Sant Martí d'Empúries, next to the Greco-Roman ruins of Empúries, in the municipality of L'Escala. It presides over the Plaça Major of this walled enclosure, whose urban layout, declared a Conjunto Histórico de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection for historic ensembles), follows that of the Roman walls. The site, on a promontory that was originally an islet, was home around 600 BC to the first Greek colony of Empòrion, founded by Phocaeans from Marseille, and between the 9th and 11th centuries was the capital of the County of Ampurias, until in 1078 it was transferred to Castelló d'Empúries, a place less exposed to attack. In the year 926 the reconstruction of an earlier, ruined church is documented, evidence of a pre-Romanesque temple prior to the current Gothic building.

Photo: Josep Maria Viñolas Esteva (CC BY 2.0)

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