Logbook · 3 places

What to see and do in Riudarenes

What to see and do in Riudarenes (Selva, 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 Riudarenes

Tower of l'Esparra 4.8 km

Towns near Riudarenes

Spain › Catalonia › Girona › Selva › Riudarenes

What to see and do in Riudarenes

Riudarenes
Village
Riudarenes is a municipality of 2,532 inhabitants (INE 2025), at 84 metres above sea level in the centre of the Selva comarca, south of Santa Coloma de Farners, on a volcanic-origin area next to l'Esparra. Around 1640, during the Catalan revolt, Spanish tercios under Lleonard Moles sacked and burned the church and the town, as well as the parish church of Sant Sadurní de Montiró; Bishop Gregori Parcero excommunicated those responsible for the sacrilege. Tradition links the episode to the origin of the song 'Els Segadors', one of the events that most fuelled the revolt against Philip IV. It lives on dryland farming and livestock, and preserves the Tower of Esparra and the sanctuary of Argimon, in l'Esparra.
Castle and Sanctuary of la Mare de Déu d'Argimon
Monument
Complex formed by the remains of an 11th-century Romanesque castle and an 18th-century Marian shrine built on the same site, in the municipality of Riudarenes. Of the castle, an eight-metre square tower that once had three storeys is preserved, along with the original chapel, with two parallel naves and a semicircular apse with remains of mural painting. The shrine, with a single nave, holds a copy of the image of the Virgin in a niche of 1993, the work of the architect Narcís Negre; its bell tower, with pointed arches, dates from 1866. Between the late 1970s and 1987 the Amics del Santuari restored the complex and found an exit passage from the castle. Every second Sunday of September an annual gathering is held there.
Tower of l'Esparra
Monument
Fortified house from the late 12th or early 13th century, atop a hill next to the veïnat de l'Esparra, beside the riera de l'Esparra, a tributary of the riera de Santa Coloma; popularly known as the Torre de les Bruixes. The parish of Sant Martí de l'Esparra, on which this small centre depended within the viscounty of Cabrera, is documented since 1169. In 1294 King Jaume II forced Ponç Hug IV d'Empúries to lift the siege of the castle of l'Esparra.