Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Breda

What to see and do in Breda (Selva, Girona): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Breda

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Spain › Catalonia › Girona › Selva › Breda

What to see and do in Breda

Breda
Village
Breda is a town and municipality of the Selva comarca (Girona), situated at 169 metres above sea level between the Montseny and Montnegre massifs, with 3,969 inhabitants (2025). The village grew up around the Benedictine monastery of Sant Salvador de Breda, founded in 1038 by the counts of Cabrera; the first written mention dates from the year 878, under Louis the Stammerer. It preserves from that period a Romanesque-Lombard bell tower, one of the oldest in Catalonia, and a large 14th-century Gothic church, 33 metres long and 12.5 metres wide, formerly known as the Cathedral of the Selva. The town keeps up its pottery tradition, with a guild established in 1777 that remains active today.
Old Town of Breda
Monument
The old town of Breda, declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Catalonia's highest level of heritage protection), lies at the foot of the Montseny, beside the stream that gives it its name, and is centred on the church of the former Benedictine monastery of Sant Salvador, founded in the 11th century: a Gothic building of the 14th-16th centuries that preserves the 12th-century Romanesque bell tower and a wing of the former cloister, next to the 16th-century abbot's house. Behind it stands the former parish church of Santa Maria, of Romanesque origin and much transformed when it became the town hall, while the rest of the old town preserves buildings such as Can Trunes or Can Sisó (1543), with voussoired doorways and ogee Gothic windows. The village, documented since the year 878, has been known since the late 16th century for its pottery tradition.
Sant Salvador de Breda
Monument
The monastery of San Salvador, or Sant Salvador de Breda, stands in Breda, very close to the Montseny massif, and forms part, together with the old town centre, of the group declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1974. It was founded in 1038 by the viscounts of Cabrera, Guerau and Ermessenda, "to save their souls"; the abbot Sunyer directed the works and his successor, abbot Amat, completed them. The church was consecrated on 4 October 1068. The faithful came mainly to venerate the relics of Saints Acisclus and Victoria, donated in 1263 by Viscount Guerau IV of Cabrera and kept in a reliquary casket that disappeared between 1820 and 1823. The last eight monks left the monastery in 1835; of the original Romanesque building, mainly the 11th-century bell tower is preserved. The monastery was burned in 1936 and again in 1939, reopening for worship in 1943.
Santa Maria de Breda
Monument
Former parish church of Breda (Selva), first documented in 1038 with the founding of the monastery of Sant Salvador de Breda, to which it remained linked, and which was the village's temple until the disentailment of the 19th century. The original Romanesque church, from the 10th-11th centuries (870-1038), had a nave with a pointed vault and a semicircular apse with traces of mural paintings, and an outer frieze of blind Lombard arcading. In later alterations two side chapels were added forming a transept, and in 1790 the octagonal bell tower was raised, with bells from 1631 and 1771. After Mendizábal's disentailment, in 1836, it became the seat of the town hall, which added two floors to it, and since 1974 it has housed the Museu Josep Aragay. It was last renovated in 2012, as the stone had become worn.
The founding of the monastery of Sant Salvador de Breda
Historical milestone
Viscount Guerau I de Cabrera founded a Benedictine monastery at the foot of the Montseny that became the family pantheon of the lineage; in 1246 it received the relics of Sant Iscle and Santa Victòria.
The pottery of Breda
Food and drink
The village's potters, with a guild of their own since 1777, have supplied Catalan kitchens for centuries with glazed earthenware casseroles, pots and greixoneres, the traditional vessel for stews, roasts and rice dishes.