Village
S'Agaró is a luxury population entity in the municipality of Castell-Platja d'Aro, in the Baix Empordà, situated between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Platja d'Aro, on the Costa Brava coastline; within its boundaries lie part of the Sant Pol beach, the Conca beach, the Punta d'en Pau headland and the Pedrosa and Vaques coves. It arose in the early 20th century with an elegant Noucentista-style development, the work of architect Rafael Masó i Valentí, built on the cliffs with gardens and stately villas; its original residential core has been declared Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection) since 1995. S'Agaró also preserves an emblematic stretch of the Camí de Ronda, and its name is thought to recall a small, now vanished stream that marked the boundary with Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
Village
Platja d'Aro is the main hub of the municipality of Castell-Platja d'Aro, in the Baix Empordà, and the seat of the town hall. Until the early 20th century it was a settlement of barely 113 inhabitants called Fenals d'Aro; with the tourism boom of the sixties it changed to its present name in 1962, and today its permanent population is around 11,000, although in summer it exceeds 90,000. It has about 32 hotels, 1,600 flats and three campsites, and is one of the liveliest day-and-night leisure centres on the Costa Brava, known for its carnival, revived in 1978, with a parade of floats and troupes. It has more than two kilometres of beach and several coves, the Roman villa of Pla de Palol and a marina at the mouth of the Ridaura.
Village
Castell d'Aro is the historic hub of the municipality of Castell-Platja d'Aro, in the Baix Empordà, at the eastern end of the Aro valley, drained by the Ridaura river between the Cadiretes range and the Gavarres. The area was settled as early as the Neolithic, around 2500 BC, and from the Copper Age there survive megalithic monuments such as the menhirs of Vallbanera and the dolmen of Cova dels Moros. In Roman times, the villa of Pla de Palol grew crops and vines and exported pottery through Cala Rovira. After the Christian resettlement of the 9th century, the first documentary mention of the valley dates from 881, when Charlemagne granted the territory to the bishop of Girona. The settlement grew up around the medieval castle of Benedormiens, and today it preserves a quiet old quarter beside the Ridaura.
Monument
A medieval castle known as Benedormiens, in the historic centre of Castell d'Aro, with parts rebuilt in the 20th century.
Monument
An early 20th-century residential development on the cliffs of S'Agaró, with gardens, stately villas and the emblematic Plaça del Mirador, an outstanding example of Catalan noucentisme.
Nature
Cala Rovira, also known as playa Artigues or playa dels Escalencs, is an urban beach in Castell-Platja d'Aro, located between the punta d'en Ramis and the point of cala Rovira, where a rocky stretch with small coves begins. Facing south-east, it is 219 metres long and between 35 and 40 metres wide, of coarse, golden sand, with a seabed that turns from sand to rock a few metres from the shore. It has lifeguard services, ramps for people with reduced mobility and a children's area, and the weekly monitoring by the Catalan Water Agency rates it excellent, which has earned it the blue flag. At one end, the rocks form a small opening sheltered towards the sea, and to the north the coastal path begins towards Sant Antoni de Calonge.
Nature
Sandy beach located in the developed surroundings of s'Agaró, in the municipality of Castell-Platja d'Aro, between Platja d'Aro and Sant Antoni de Calonge. It is bordered to the north-east by a rocky stretch connecting to the Marina Port d'Aro harbour, and to the south by the cliffs of the s'Agaró development; a rocky formation jutting into the sea, the Sa Conca islet, divides it into two stretches, the second of which is called cala dels Oriços. Facing east, it is 384 metres long and between 5 and 70 metres wide, of coarse sand with a steep entry into the water. It is reached by vehicle through the private development or on foot along the coastal path, which coincides with the GR-92 trail.
Nature
Platja Gran de Platja d'Aro, also called platja Llarga, stretches 1,500 metres from the mouth of the Ridaura river to the punta d'en Ramis, in the municipality of Castell d'Aro, Platja d'Aro i s'Agaró, with a width of between 40 and 70 metres of coarse, golden sand. Next to punta d'en Ramis stands out the rock known as Cavall Bernat. It has toilets, showers, lifeguards, accessible ramps, beach bars and a seafront promenade with bars, restaurants and hotels, and holds the Blue Flag for the quality of its waters.
Activity
One of the most crowded carnivals on the Costa Brava, with more than 50 years of history and a large parade of floats and costumed groups. Revived in 1978 and inspired by central European models, it is today a leading carnival event in the comarca.
Monument
Rural Romanesque church from the 10th-11th centuries, located in Fenals d'Amunt, in the municipal term of Castell-Platja d'Aro i s'Agaró, within the extensive network of Romanesque temples that characterises the Baix Empordà. It belonged to the monastery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols and displays Lombard decoration, with blind arcading between pilaster strips, a single nave covered with a barrel vault and a semicircular abside. From the 16th century the population shifted toward Fenals d'Aro, closer to the coast, which left the temple disused; in 1749 a bishop ordered its closure due to the threat of collapse, and it even came to be used as a granary. After being in danger of definitive collapse, the town council acquired and restored it.
Activity
The Festa Major of this tourist municipality on the Costa Brava, with popular and musical activities over several days in August.
Historical milestone
From 1923 Josep Ensesa commissioned the architect Rafael Masó to develop the point of S'Agaró as a residential complex in the Noucentista style, with a coastal promenade above the sea; it was one of the first developments on the Costa Brava.