Cabanyes Font house (1877)
   

A typical stately home from the end of the last century with modernist elements, especially in the so called Americano furniture. It belonged to the Cabanyes Font family, the owners of St Pere del Bosc.

It was built in 1877 and purchased by the town hall in 1982, nowadays it houses the Municipal Museum.

 

  Town Hall (1868-1872)
   

Neo-classical style. Constructed according to the plans drawn up by architect Félix de Azúa between 1868 and 1872. In 1867 it was agreed that the Torre de la Vila (town's tower) should be demolished. The walls of the old d'En Pau Rei mill were also at risk of ruin and were torn down. With the demolition of the tower the city was left without a town hall. The authorisation to demolish the tower was granted by the civil governor in July 1867 and by September the projects and budgets for the new town hall had already been prepared and the bidding conditions for the work were approved by the city council. The budget for this work totalled 1.981.660 escudos (300.22 Euros), four times the total ordinary budget for that year.

With the placement of the Comunity Hall some thirty metres closer to the sea than the old fort and the subsequent alignement of the future esplanades with the new factory, a series of plots of land pertaining to the City Hall appeared. The Casa de la Vila or town hall, one of the most modest in Catalonia, was solemnly inagurated in February 1872 and attended by the Province's highest authorities. A telegraph was inagurated in 1884 and the City Hall´s clock was installed the same year. Construction of the bell tower, named bona nit (good night), was awarded to the blacksmith Pere Tarrats at a price of 90 cents per Kilo. Thus the work was contracted by weight.

 

  Sant Joan's castle (X c.)
   

This castle was built during the XI Century and dominated under a feudal system the village. Inspite of the different rebellions, local population could not burst feudal bonds until XVIII Century.

The castle suffered severe damages after a Genoese attack and also during the war against Napoleon's Grand Armee (also known as the Frenchman's War); diverse storms during the past centuries finished this destructive job.

The main tower resisted since mid past century, when a heavy storm had flattened the remains. Recently reconstructed, this tower is the only evidence of its past glory.

 

  En Plaja's Castle (1935)
   

Private building in castle shape from end of Spanish Civil War. It become one of the most popular pictures to represent Lloret and has been offten confused as a medieval castle.

Settled in northern side of the Lloret's main beach, oposite to the Dona Marinera monument in the calm beach of La Caleta.

The backside of the castle is the trailhead of the so called Camí de Ronda (surveillance trail), recently recuperated, from where you can take a walk along the coast.

 

  Cemetery (1900)
   

The Municipal cemetery (1900) contains sumptuous Modernist style sepulchres from the Gaudí school.

At the entrance to the village, and the foot of an illuminated fountain, the verses of Sebastià Sánchez Juan extol the special character of the inhabitants of Lloret: "Fora d'humana mida no resulta res que es doni a Lloret: atzar, fatic, recordats piament, tenen un culte al fons del cor com en un vidre antic" (Camí del repòs, 200 meters from Sant Quirze hermitage).

 

  Santa Clotilde Gardens (1919)
   

The Santa Clotilde gardens in Lloret de Mar are set in a natural amphitheatre overlooking the sea. They cover a surface area of 26.830 square metres, and the upper esplanade stands 50 metres above sea level. The gardens are currently property of Lloret de Mar town Council. At the begining of the twentieth century, Doctor Roviralta bought the land to built a house and gardens. The design was entrusted to Nicolau M. Rubio i Tadurí, who in time was to become the maximum exponent of Catalan landscape architecture.

Santa Clotilde Gardens were designed along Italia Renaissance lines: terraced gardens with ample views on the surrounding area and harmonically arranged native species. The balance between space, volume and colour is set off by certain ornamental elements which form various points of interest of great beauty.

The sculptures are placed in the garden to create different points of interest. There are sculptural groups associated with water such as Marià Llimona's bronze mermaids on the main staircase. In the concourses and "miradors" there are classically inspired busts on ivy-covered pedestals.

The dramatic effect is further enhanced by the play of colours: the blue of the sky, the permanent green of the vegetation and the white of the ground, the sculptures and the white poplars.

Set in a natural amphitheatre, the Santa Clotilde Gardens offer open views over the surrounding landscape. The use of some of the same species that grow in the surrounding landscape means that it is sometimes difficult to tell where the garden end and the natural landscape begins.

 

  The Garriga Houses (1872)
   

The Garriga House, constructed in 1887, belonged to a well known Lloret family that had emigrate to Cuba. Confirming all of this, mention is made in the 1716 census of a Cristina Garriga, a widow, head of a family, about 48 years old with a 14 years old soon and a 16 years old daughter. The document states, "She is poor through her husband being slaved". In contrast with this situation, the Garrigas of fifty years later, thanks to their work in America, have a different economic power and become one of the most distinguished families in the community.

The construction of the Garriga House, previously mentioned, bears this out. Thus, a promenade where palm trees would later be planted occupies the space between this house and the town hall. This, along with the fact that the majority of the building long the front maintain a truly colonial air, was to give this urbanistic sector of Lloret a very evocative West Indian look. Behind the Town Hall at one end and the Garriga House at the other, alongside the land adjacent to the beach there was a reparcelling into plots at the end of the last century. The resultant plots were sold to buyers who happened to be repatriated Indianos or Americanos and who built new homes on them.

The tourist "boom" in Lloret, brought about unprecedented urbanistic change whereby almost all of the Americano stately homes disappeared, victims of speculation. The Garriga House, together with some others, are today the few exceptions. Is a clear and magnigicient example of an era which, after all, is still deeply rooted in the autochtonous population of Lloret.

 

  Roman sepulchral (II c. AD)
   

A Romanic burial monument dating back to the second century AD and discovered in 1891, which forms part of a cremation necropolis dated between the first and third centuries AD.

Its owner was probably a landowner from a nearby Roman town whose ashes were kept in an urn located in the top of the tower. It is 4 meters high and consists of a base, the body of the tower and a roof with a railing on three of its four sides.

The remains we can see today are from a reconstruction in 1968, because shortly before the tower was knocked down in a regrettable manner.

 

NORTH   Montbarbat fortified enclosure (IV-III c. BC)
   


The farest site from the village, it seems to be the most important Iberian enclosure of this area. It has been found some Atic ceramic fragments, which prove the greek influence in this part of the land.

 

 

EAST   Puig de Castellet fortified enclosure (III c. BC)
   

This Iberic settlement was a fortified enclosure inhabited for fourty years from 250 to 210 BC, and abandoned at the end of the second Punic war. It is situated on the northwest face of the hill, dominating a vast area of the coastline and beeing inspite, completly invisible as from the sea. That's why it's believed that was a militar site for survellance and control of the coast and the immediate hinterland inhabited by warriors and their families, probably depending from the close settlement in Montbarbat.

This archeological site has been opened to the public and you can also enjoy the panoramic view of the contryside. It has a pentagonal shape 30 meters wide, two gateways lead into the interior where there are eleven spaces with three rooms each. Each house has its own working and living area attached to the outside walls in order to get the best sun light and heating conditions.

 

 

 

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