Village
Camprodon is the head town of its valley, in the Ripollès district, situated at the confluence of the Ter and Ritort rivers; with the annexation of Freixenet, Rocabruna and Beget it is one of the largest municipalities in the district, with 2,570 inhabitants (INE 2025). Its old town, crossed by the Pont Nou, originated around the monastery of Sant Pere and the market granted by Ramón Berenguer III in 1118; it attained the rank of royal town around 1252. It suffered repeated sieges and fires at French hands, by Louis XI in 1470 and during the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries. From the late 19th century it became a summer resort for the Catalan bourgeoisie, who built large houses along the Passeig de Maristany; the Hotel Camprodon opened in 1916, frequented by Joan Maragall. It also preserves its tradition of cured sausages.
Monument
Beget is an isolated medieval settlement in a valley of the Ripollès, part of the municipality of Camprodon together with Freixenet and Rocabruna, and is considered one of the most charming villages in Catalonia. Its main monument is the church of Sant Cristòfol, a single-nave Romanesque temple with a semicircular apse and a pointed barrel vault, whose entrance door, with five archivolts on columns, opens to the south. Beside it stands a four-storey bell tower in Lombard Romanesque style, whose lower body may correspond to an earlier 10th-century temple, while the two upper storeys, with twin windows, date from the 12th century. The interior, with 1890 paintings by Joaquim Vayreda imitating the Romanesque style, is preserved almost intact, as the Civil War did not affect it.
Monument
The church of Sant Cristòfol de Beget, in the village of Beget (Camprodon, Ripollès), is a Catalan Romanesque temple, Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of cultural heritage protection), which houses the famous Majestat de Beget, a 12th-century wooden carving depicting Christ on the cross, considered one of the supreme works of Catalan Romanesque sculpture. The building, with a single nave, a semicircular apse and a pointed barrel vault, opens through a portal of five archivolts on columns with carved capitals. Attached to the south side, the four-storey Lombard bell tower has the ground floor of an earlier temple, possibly from the 10th century, while the upper storeys, from the 12th century, show twin windows. The interior also preserves a Romanesque baptismal font 120 centimetres in diameter.
Monument
The Pont Nou de Camprodon is a medieval single-arch stone bridge, with a double slope in a humpback shape, joined to a defence tower where the old Cerdanya gate opens; next to the tower, a segmental-arch vault leads to Carrer de Sant Roc. It was most probably built between 1196 and 1226, and partly rebuilt in the 14th century, to carry the mule track leading to the Cerdanya. It crosses the Ter just after its confluence with the Ritort, separating the Vila de Dalt, centred on the monastery, from the Vila de Baix. Restored in 1930, probably by Jeroni Martorell, its silhouette is one of the symbols of the town, and it is declared bien cultural de interés nacional (Catalonia's highest level of cultural heritage protection).
Monument
Former Benedictine monastery located in the town of Camprodon, in the Ripollès, founded around the year 950 by Guifré II of Besalú; only the Romanesque church survives, consecrated in 1169 over an earlier temple from the year 904. The monastery was joined in 1078 to the abbey of Moissac, a daughter house of Cluny, from which it did not separate until 1461, by which time its decline had already begun; it was abandoned after the 1835 dissolution of the monasteries. The church, from the mid-12th century, has a Latin-cross plan with five square apses and a dome over the crossing that serves as the base for the two-storey bell tower; its cloister, ruined by the 1428 earthquakes, was never rebuilt. The complex was definitively restored between 1928 and 1932 by the architect Jeroni Martorell.
Monument
A castle originally called Sant Nicolau, built from 1196 under authorisation granted by Peter I to the abbot of Sant Pere de Camprodon; it was blown up in 1698, and today only fragments survive of its walls of river cobbles from the Ter, restored in campaigns run by the Diputació de Girona since 2017.
Activity
The Festa Major of Camprodon, with popular events in this town of the Vall de Camprodon.
Monument
Church located in the depopulated hamlet of Bestracà, municipality of Camprodon, on the south slope of the hill of the same name, with views towards the Empordà; it is reached by a track beside the Pairer farmhouse. Documented since 977, it was a parish until 1608, when it passed under the dependence of Sant Miquel de Pera. It is a 12th-century Romanesque construction, with a single nave with a pointed vault and a semicircular apse with a frieze of corbels carved with human heads and fantastic animals. The door, with a round arch and a tympanum bearing a cross in relief, preserves much of its original ironwork, with a bolt in the shape of a dragon's head. The Museu Diocesà de Girona holds the reliquaries found in the main altar during the 1964 restoration.
Monument
Romanesque parish church of the village of Rocabruna, formerly part of the municipality of Beget and today within Camprodon, on the south side of the Montfalgars mountain. It is first mentioned in 1097, in a donation by Arnau de Petrio to the monastery of Sant Pere de Camprodon; it was restored between 1469 and 1477 by Pere Des Bach, lord of Rocabruna, and again in 1929. It is a 12th-century church with a single nave with a pointed barrel vault and a semicircular apse of well-squared ashlar, with a cornice and a sawtooth frieze. The south doorway retains the original Romanesque ironwork, with a bolt shaped like a dragon's head. The original bell tower was a bell-gable; the present tower was built above it, with a four-sided roof. A few metres away stands the comunidor, or reliquary chapel.
Monument
Romanesque chapel from the 11th-12th centuries on the Cavallera mountain range, in the municipality of Camprodon (Ripollès), with more modern structures attached: a rectory, sacristy and cemetery outbuildings. The parish is already mentioned in the year 839 and belonged to the diocese of Seu d'Urgell until the 18th century, when it passed to the bishopric of Vic. It has a rectangular plan and a single nave, with a square apse and pointed barrel vault, and a triumphal arch resting on stepped pilasters that narrow the width of the presbytery. The walls, of carefully dressed ashlar, are visible thanks to a restoration that returned the church to its original appearance; in the 18th century a bell tower and two side chapels were added, but the bell tower was recently demolished as it was in danger of collapse. Roofed with Arabic tile. Asset of Local Cultural Interest.
Monument
12th-century Romanesque church set atop a small hill overlooking the Salarça valley, in the hamlet of the same name, within the former municipality of Beget and today part of Camprodon, although geographically it belongs to the Alta Garrotxa. Small in plan, with a pointed barrel vault and a semicircular apse facing east, it retains its original doorway, now blocked, in the south wall; the current entrance is on the west side, where a porch supporting the two-bell bell-gable was added between the 16th and 17th centuries, with bells dated 1733 and 1761. It was consecrated in 1168 by Ponç de Monells, bishop of Tortosa and abbot of Sant Joan de les Abadesses. On the Saturday after Ascension Day, the Aplec de Salarça is held, with a paraliturgical ceremony, the blessing of horses, sardana dances and a popular arrossada (communal rice dish).
Monument
The church of Santa Maria de Bolòs, dating from the 11th century and consecrated on 13 October 1050, stands on a small sunny terrace beside the Bolòs stream, in the hamlet of the same name, in the former municipality of Freixenet, annexed to Camprodon in 1965; administratively it belongs to the Ripollès, although geographically it is part of the Alta Garrotxa. It has a semicircular apse, a nave with a pointed vault and a tower-type bell tower topped with a pyramid at the north-west corner. The place name Bolosso is already documented in 1017, and later records from 1159, 1195 and 1213 mention the church again. It retains mural paintings and a small plaster altarpiece; as the hamlet has been depopulated since 1950, the church has gradually fallen into disrepair. It is protected as an asset of local cultural interest.
Monument
The castle of Creixenturri stood in the settlement of Bolòs, within the municipality of Camprodon. Although some sources place its origin in the 8th century, its reconstruction is only documented in 1245, when James I granted it in free allod to Albert de Sant-romà. In 1360 Peter IV sold it to the Cruïlles couple, who in 1381 ceded it to the abbot of Sant Joan de les Abadesses; by the 14th century it had been enlarged with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Creixenturri. The earthquakes of 1427-1428 began its decline, and in 1554 the viceroy, the Marquis of Tarifa, ordered it destroyed, as it had by then become a refuge for bandits during the struggles between the Nyerros and Cadells factions. Today only the foundations remain, covered by forest. Asset of National Cultural Interest since 1988 (BCIN 607-MH).
Monument
The Torre Cavallera stands at a strategic point on the mountain range of the same name, at 1,136 metres above sea level, commanding the whole Ter valley as far as Sant Pau de Segúries; its function was almost certainly to defend the southern entrance to Camprodon, serving as a watchtower and signal tower. The Cavallera stronghold is already documented in the 10th century, although the surviving tower is later. Despite the passage of time, it remains fairly intact thanks to the thickness of its walls, which exceed one metre: square in plan, with sides of about 6 metres, it stands today at about 12 metres high, although the upper part is in ruins. The entrance door, in the east wall, is set about 4 metres above ground and was reached by a retractable ladder; the barrel vault that formed the original ceiling is still visible.
Monument
Rocabruna castle, at 995 m on the Tossal del Castell, documented from the 10th century and as a stronghold in 1087, had a double wall, a great hall with herringbone masonry and a chapel dedicated to Saint Lawrence; reduced to rubble at the start of the 20th century, it was excavated and restored between 2006 and 2013. An Asset of National Cultural Interest (BCIN 609-MH).
Monument
Castle situated at 1,044 metres on the ridge of its mountain, in Camprodon, whose barony was the centre of a feudal jurisdiction documented since the year 977. Around the year 1000 Bernat de Bestracà appears, one of the earliest known castellans, who in 1010 took part in an expedition of Catalans to Cordoba alongside Count Bernat Tallaferro. From the 12th century onwards the list of lords of Bestracà can be established, until in 1365 King Peter the Ceremonious gave the barony to Pere Blau, whose family eventually sold it to the Barutell, lords of Oix; it later passed to the Dusai, marquises of Monistrol, and to the Escrivà de Romaní, barons of Beniparrell. It was probably abandoned after the peasant revolt of 1462. It still retains a cistern, walls of the central building, a 43-metre southern defensive wall and the remains of a possible watchtower; it is an Asset of National Cultural Interest.
Monument
El Castellot is an old stronghold, now converted into a farmhouse, situated on the summit of a hill above the Cordonet, in the municipality of Camprodon, and declared an Asset of National Cultural Interest. From the original construction several stretches of wall survive, with three doorways topped by stone arches, and the upper floor was reached by a stone staircase. The walls, 90 centimetres thick, retain arrow slits.
Historical milestone
Ramon Berenguer III authorized the holding of a market beside the monastery of Sant Pere, the origin of the town; in 1252 Camprodon became a royal town and the head of a veguería, with jurisdiction over the valleys of the upper Ter.
Historical milestone
The epicenter of the largest known earthquake in Catalonia, known as the Terratrèmol de la Candelera because it coincided with that feast day, lay next to the town on 2 February 1428, which lost around two hundred residents; the tremor brought down bell towers and vaults from the Ripollès all the way to Barcelona and also struck Roussillon hard, ruining entire villages in the Pyrenees. It was part of a series of tremors that had been shaking the area since February 1427, with earthquakes in March, April, May and December of that year that had already weakened structures such as the monastery of Amer, which would explain the scale of the destruction in 1428.
Food and drink
Thin butter biscuits made in the town since the beginning of the twentieth century, when the fashion for bourgeois summer holidays created their clientele; in 1929 the factory was built that turned them into the valley's sweet souvenir.
Food and drink
Cured sausage of coarsely chopped pork seasoned only with salt and pepper, dried in the cold, dry air of the upper Ter; together with fuet and bull, it is the basis of the valley's charcuterie.