Introduction
What we see of the castle of Montgrí today was built on the orders of the Count of Barcelona between the end of the thirteenth and start of the fourteenth century, motivated by the conflict between the Count of Empúries and the Count of Barcelona to control the northern side of the Montgrí better. The castle, as can be seen, was never finished, as a result of the final domination of the County of Barcelona over the territory of the Alt Empordà, it stopped being strategically important a few years after its initial construction.
Outside the castle, as can be seen from where you are now, you can see the quarries from which the stone blocks used for making its walls were extracted. As the castle is unfinished, the quarries make it possible to understand how the rocks were cut and the process of constructing the building.
The castle has always been a visual emblem of all of the surrounding territory: in the words of the writer Josep Pla, “belly button of the Empordà”.