Description
Santa Maria de Castell d'Aro is a protected church as a cultural asset of local interest in the municipality of Castell and Platja d'Aro (Baix Empordà).
It is a late Gothic style church with a Baroque facade. It has a central ship with side chapels and a five-sided polygonal headboard. On the western facade, there is a stone portal, decorated with finished in false capitals pilasters and on the lintel, there is a framed niche with reliefs. In the middle of the temple, the bell tower, a square-shaped tower that has an apartment with pairs of half-pointed arcades, is crowned with a pinnacle deck. In the South side a sacristy (1765) is added to the temple.
The ship can date back in the 16th-17th centuries, and the facade, typical example of the simple local Baroque, in the second half of the 18th century. The whole building is made of neighborhood stone.
Dedicated to Santa Maria, it was consecrated in 1018, suffraganda of that of Santa Cristina d'Aro was the Castle’s chapel. Until 1691 it does not appear as an independent parish, formed a single district with that of Santa Maria de Fanals. The current building does not preserve remains of the first building. Nowadays it is a parish of the first ascent, belongs to the archipelago of La Bisbal, after being the archdeacon of La Selva.