El teu portal de turisme a Girona.
El teu portal de turisme a Girona.
ABSOLUTE SUCCESS of the Mobile Office Turistic Inforamtion
in the MEDIEVAL HOLIDAY OF HOSTALRIC.
The past 22 i 23 of March celebrated the MEDIEVAL HOLIDAY D'HOSTALRIC, where
www.turismegirona.com install our Mobile Office Turistic Information,
this fair has been undoubtedly an ABSOLUTE SUCCESS.
MEDIEVAL HOLIDAY OF HOSTALRIC
As a
result of this event, every year on Easter weekend Hostalric turns into a
medieval village with a fine market and characters and activities associated
with that period. This is also intended to commemorate the splendours of the
town’s medieval past, it having been the centre and chief town of the large
viscounty of Cabrera.
Falconry, archery, itinerant shows, demonstrations of trades rooted in medieval
times, stalls selling craft and natural products, a tourist train to take people
from the parking zones to the market, open-day access to Hostalric’s
architectural heritage... all these are among the activities put on for the
Hostalric Medieval Fair.
Other cultural and leisure activities are also put on over the weekend, most
notably the guided tours focusing on the town’s most representative heritage.
A bit of history:
In
ancient times Hostalric was an obligatory point of passage on the north-south
route, standing on the only natural corridor between Girona and Barcelona.
Excavations carried out on the castle hill discovered remains from the Iberian
period. In Roman times, an inland branch of the Via Augusta passed through here,
and remains of it were found during the construction works of the Sant Hilari
road.
The origins of the town of Hostalric seem to lie in a hostel documented from the
11th century in the place known as Onota, beside the old Roman road leading to
France. The first clear documentary reference to Hostalric is from 1106, when
Guerau Ponç, the Viscount of Cabrera, swore allegiance to Count Ramon Berenguer
III of Barcelona.
The feudal conflicts in Catalonia in the late 12th century had one of their
focal points in the castle of Hostalric due to the rebellious temperament of its
master, Ponç III de Cabrera.
Over the years, the Cabrera family converted the town of Hostalric into the
administrative capital of the extensive territories of their viscounty, right up
until the abolition of the lordship in 1836.
Hostalric is situated on a
narrow crag of basalt rock on the left bank of the River Tordera, at its
confluence with the Arbúcies stream. At the western end of the crag is the
castle hill, rising to 189 metres above sea level, which now separates the old
part of the town from the new neighbourhoods.
In the middle ages Hostalric became the administrative centre of the viscounty
of Cabrera and, along with the Montsoriu castle, one of this family’s principal
strongholds.
From the documentation we have on the medieval castle of Hostalric, it seems to
have been small and of the same type as the other castles in the Girona region
at that time: more utilitarian than aesthetic, of a certain breadth, with the
typical halls and chambers of a castle-mansion.
In the first half of the 12th century the castle was a useful and important
fortification. In 1306 Jaume II authorised Ponç Hug to carry out alterations to
it.
On 27 July 1695 the Duke of Noailles demolished the castle and abandoned it. A
year later it was rebuilt to plans by the military engineer Josep Chifrion, who
surrounded the walls and towers with a system of polygonal bastions and also
built, at the highest point, pavilions and arsenals that form part of the
modern-day castle, destroying what remained of the medieval Cabrera castle.
Between 1719 and 1754 the present-day castle was built, as a military fortress.
The design is attributed to Jorge Próspero de Verboom y de Wolf, the architect
of the Citadel of Barcelona and the fortification of the Old Cathedral of Lleida
Guided and autoguide tours of the castle.For information and reservations:
Some images of the numerous public
that I request information our stewardesses of the Mobile Office Tourism
Information installed in this holiday.
We wait for you in the close edition...
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