What to visit
Palau-Sator
Baix Empordà Route
1. SANT PAU DE FONTCLARA
The Monastery of Sant Pau de Fontclara is documented for the first time in the year 889, shortly afterward it would depend on the Occitan abbey of Santa María de la Grasa with the restoration of the Carolingian dynasty. It is currently the parish church of Fontaclara, in the municipality of Palau-Sator. The temple, of Romanesque style, is formed by a single nave finished in semicircular apse with side chapels added in the seventeenth century. The exterior of the apse is decorated with four lessens or Lombard strips to which 3 windows open.
In the interior of the temple paintings of the early thirteenth century are preserved, which were found in retreat to remove the altarpiece in 1936. The Romanesque paintings represent the Pantocrator, surrounded by the four evangelists with the head turned towards the Christ. In the lower level we find the apostles sitting on a bench and grouped by couples and at the height of the windows, we find two scenes of the life of St. Paul. Finally, the triumphal arch is covered with the representation of the Ancients of the Apocalypse.
2. THE TOWN OF PALAU-SATOR
The town of Palau-Sator is a historical alliance declared to be of national cultural interest. It still retains the typically medieval walled enclosure. The tower of Homage, at the very heart of his nucleus, formed a part of the castle stronghold around which the town has developed. Surrounding the ancient settlement was a second wall of which these remain some fragments, one of the entrance portals and the defense towers.
The Tower of Hours, the clocktower, a monument of national interest, was constructed in the fourteenth century in one of the portals that give access to the interior of the old settlement. Named as such because historically it housed the town’s clock, and still remains the ancient sundial beneath the modern mechanical clock from 1936. The culmination of the tower is the belfry in the shape of a chair. Outside the walled enclosure is the church of Sant Pere, which was built around the thirteenth century. In 1969, the village’s priest and an artist painted in the apse an innovative mural in which characters such as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Pompeu Fabra, and John F. Kennedy among others. This mural was damaged by a group of Francoist revolutionaries and nowadays nothing can be seen. The richness of the subterranean waters from the marshlands of the Empordà plains has influenced Palau-Sator. Just at the entrance of the nucleus a natural outcrop of water feeds the public fountain and the laundry.
3. SANT JULIÀ DE BOADA
Sant Julià de Boada is a made up of a group of traditional farmhouses built around a church dating back to the end of the 9th century. This religious building is dedicated to Saint Julià and is one of the most notable examples of early medieval architecture in Baix Empordà. With a single nave and particularly interesting horseshoe arches found at the entrance and in the centre of the church. Also a monument declared to be of national cultural interest.
