Village
Peralada is a walled town in the Alt Empordà, situated on the Empordà plain where the Llobregat de l'Empordà receives the Orlina before flowing into the Muga. It has 2,077 inhabitants (INE 2025) and includes the settlement of Vilanova de la Muga, annexed in 1975. Of Iberian origin, with a settlement dated to around 500 BC, it was in the Middle Ages the seat of the county of Perelada, under the county of Ampurias; in Plaça Muntaner stands the birthplace of the chronicler Ramón Muntaner (1265-1336). Its castle, from the 9th century and rebuilt in the 14th, was enlarged in French Renaissance style at the end of the 19th century and today houses a casino that hosts the Peralada Festival every summer. The historic centre, with its narrow streets, also preserves the Carme convent, among vineyards of the DO Empordà.
Village
Vilanova de la Muga is a small settlement of the municipality of Peralada, in the Alt Empordà comarca, beside the Muga river and surrounded by the Ampurdán marshlands. It was an independent municipality until 1974, the year it was incorporated into Peralada; before that, in 1846, it had absorbed the settlements of Puig Barutell and Sant Joan Sescloses. It preserves a small 14th-century walled quarter and the fortified church of Santa Eulàlia, built in the mid-11th century and whose central nave was rebuilt toward the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. Inside are preserved 13th-century medieval mural paintings, later restored, depicting the public life of Jesus, ornamental motifs and drapery, as well as the tomb of the knight Asbert, of the Trilla family, who died in 1313.
Monument
The castle of Peralada is a former comital castle from the late Middle Ages located in the municipality of the same name, in the Alt Empordà, between Figueres and the Costa Brava. Acquired by Miguel Mateu in 1923, it today houses the Casino de Peralada, the Glass Museum, with one of the most important private glass collections in the world, the Wine Museum, a library of 80,000 volumes of old books and 1,000 copies of Don Quixote, the wine cellars, and the church and cloister of the Carme, in Gothic style. Since 1987 it has hosted every summer, in July and August, the Castell de Peralada International Music Festival, which in 1992 joined the European Festivals Association and in 2016 received the Creu de Sant Jordi.
Monument
A 12th-century Romanesque cloister of Augustinian origin, later home to a Dominican community; it is the best-preserved part of the former monastery.
Activity
The Peralada Castle International Music Festival has been held every July and August since 1987 in the grounds of Peralada Castle (Alt Empordà), and brings together recitals, symphonic-choral concerts, operas, dance and jazz and chamber-music performances. It has been part of the European Festivals Association since 1992, alongside events such as Bayreuth, Berlin, Florence and Salzburg, and in 2016 it received the Creu de Sant Jordi for its cultural and social value. The castle that hosts it, dating from the late Middle Ages, was acquired in 1923 by Miguel Mateu and today houses the Peralada Casino, the Glass and Wine museums, a library of 80,000 volumes, and the Gothic church and cloister of the Carme. Operas staged there have included The Barber of Seville, Otello, La Bohème and Don Giovanni.
Activity
The Peralada golf course (Alt Empordà), with 18 holes, is owned by Grup Peralada and lies one kilometre from the town centre, surrounded by vineyards of the DO Empordà; a development of second homes, with its own register of residents, known as Club de Golf Peralada, has grown up around it. It is considered one of the best-rated courses on the Costa Brava.
Historical milestone
During Philip the Bold's crusade against the Crown of Aragon, in 1285, Peter the Great ordered the town evacuated for lack of provisions and it burned; Muntaner and Desclot disagree on whether it was burned by the almogavars or by the viscount of Rocabertí.