Peratallada, Palau Sator and Juliá de Boada
Peratallada is a well-preserved medieval walled town. “Peratallada” means cut stone, and many of the narrow streets and building foundations in this town are just that, literally carved right into the natural rock. There are also ancient cartwheel ruts cut into the road. The town is beautifully kept, and strolling around its cobbled streets you can admire a whole range of well-preserved buildings whose origins date back to pre-Roman times. There are a number of attractive restaurants and bars in Peretallada, including Psss. Café, which plays “world music” and occasionally offers live jazz. Be sure to take a look at their collection of curious tables. Festa Major is on August 6th and 7th. Agricultural fair the last Sunday in April. There is a very popular Medieval festival the first weekend in October.
There is an interesting back road starting at the tree-lined creek below town. This dirt track leads through some active farms and an equestrian centre, past a couple of fancy masias and a lovely 12th century chapel, to Sant Climent de Peralta.
Palau Sator is a tiny medieval hamlet with perimeter walls that can be walked around in less than 10 minutes. Palau Sator boasts three reputable restaurants, Can Dol, Mas Pou, and La Torre, the least expensive of the three, which has fabulous roast lamb. (The chef is also the village butcher, and he’s likely to come out to ask you what cut you want and explain how his lamb is cooked fresh so you’ll just have to wait however long it takes if you want it done right.). This is a family place and the atmosphere can be chaotic, lots of kids running around, and sometimes the background music jumps into the foreground.
Juliá de Boada has an interesting Mozarabic church with horseshoe arches. There is a lovely Romanesque church at Canapost. The view from Castell d’Empordà is very attractive. Vulpellac is a heavily restored medieval village with a privately owned Gothic palace featuring a central patio with main stairway and a well. Corça is over-restored, but has at least one good restaurant and an excellent bakery. Casavells. Matajudaica.
This article was written by Francis Barrett. See also Francis' excellent guide to Ireland irelandbyways.com
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