Introduction
Montgrí Castle was built by order of King Jaume II at the end of the thirteenth century to fight the power of the Counts of Empúries and is still unfinished. Its construction was started by Bernat de Llabià, the governor of Torroella, in 1294 as a checkpoint owing to a confrontation between King Jaume the Just and Ponç V, Count of Empúries, but work was interrupted in 1301 without its construction being completed owing to the consolidation of the power of the County of Barcelona over the County of Empúries.
The castles of Bellcaire and Montgrí still defiantly face each other, witnesses to the bitter struggle of the monarchy against the feudal powers. The struggle ended with the county being incorporated into the crown, but only after the region had been ruined.
The incomplete structure was built in seven years and was paid for by special taxes on the inhabitants of Torroella and also by ones applied to the pairs of oxen of the people of Ullà and Albons. For a century and a half, its complement was ten men, one beast of burden and two mastiffs. After this it was abandoned for centuries.