Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Bellcaire d'Empordà

What to see and do in Bellcaire d'Empordà (Baix Empordà, Girona): 3 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments

How far each place is from the centre of Bellcaire d'Empordà

Sant Joan de Bellcaire 100 m

Towns near Bellcaire d'Empordà

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Spain › Catalonia › Girona › Baix Empordà › Bellcaire d'Empordà

What to see and do in Bellcaire d'Empordà

Bellcaire d'Empordà
Village
Bellcaire d'Empordà is a town in the Baix Empordà, on the border with the Alt Empordà, perched on a hill overlooking the Baix Ter plain, formerly occupied by the Bellcaire lagoon, drained in the mid-18th century. Documented in 881 as Bedenga, it belonged to the county of Empúries and was the residence of its counts from the late 13th century, hence the Gothic castle-palace that crowns the village and today houses the town hall and the parish church. It is part of the Montgrí, les Illes Medes i el Baix Ter Natural Park, and is crossed by the rec del Molí, a watercourse that once powered the local mills. It also preserves the 11th-century Romanesque church of Sant Joan. In 2025 it has 723 inhabitants.
Castle-Palace of Bellcaire d'Empordà
Monument
The Castell-Palau de Bellcaire d'Empordà is a Gothic castle-palace from the 13th-14th centuries that crowns the small municipality, a former possession of the counts of Empúries. It was built by Ponç V d'Empúries (1277-1313), who resided there habitually, and was also inhabited by his son Malgaulí, the last count of the first dynasty. Square in plan with a central courtyard, it preserves six round towers, one at each corner and two more at the centre of the north and west walls, and on the south façade open two voussoired doorways and Gothic mullioned windows. From 1418 it was part of the barony of Verges under the viscounts of Rocabertí, and in 1587 it passed to the crown. The best-preserved towers are those at the southeast and southwest corners. It is declared an Asset of National Cultural Interest.
Sant Joan de Bellcaire
Monument
A church also known as Sant Joan de Bedenga, the old name of Bellcaire, declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection). It is already mentioned in a papal bull of Sylvester II from the year 1002, and was a parish church until the end of the 17th century, when worship was moved to the castle of Bellcaire; it remained as the cemetery chapel until its restoration in 1960. Of basilical plan with three naves, it preserves a pre-Romanesque apse over which a Lombard-style head was raised in the 11th century; the portal with tympanum and the rose window are 13th- and 14th-century additions. The apse preserved 12th-century Romanesque mural paintings, attributed to the circle of the Master of Osormort, removed in the 20th century; their fragments are today divided between the Museu d'Art de Girona and the MNAC.