MONTGRÍ CASTLE ROUTE

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History and scenery in the Montgrí Massif

Park in the car park provided by the council in the Horta d’en Quintana area and start the route on quiet roads in the old town of Torroella de Montgrí, where you can admire some of its old buildings. 

The route leaves the built-up area on a wide sandy track which climbs gently towards Montgrí castle. You walk amidst old crop fields, which are now abandoned, and flank a small wood of young Aleppo pines before reaching a slope covered with loose rocks known as el Pedrigolet, where the path is now narrower and more pleasant.

A few metres further on, dry-stone walls can still be seen alongside the path, evidence of the old agricultural exploitation of this location in the Montgrí Massif. 

The path from here is a bit steeper but is still pleasant. You will find three chapels – old Stations of the Cross from when the townsfolk would go up in procession to the Hermitage of Santa Caterina – where you can admire the plain of the Empordanet before reaching the Cross of Santa Caterina, located on the hill of the same name. From the Cross, there are views of the Hermitage of Santa Caterina and also to both sides of the hill.

From here, the ground becomes less steep for around a hundred metres before becoming steeper before it reaches the castle. In the area around Montgrí Castle, you can see some of the old quarries from which the stone for building the castle was extracted.

You can access the castle and its four towers, which offer excellent views of all of the Empordà, the plain of the Baix Ter, the gulf of Roses and the Medes Islands and the coast.

Head back to the starting point on the same path you took on the outward leg.