Most beautiful villages in Catalonia
Catalonia packs a remarkable variety of landscapes into a small area, and its villages reflect this well: from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, from river valleys to volcanic crags, almost all of them share stone as their building material and the Middle Ages as their golden age. Romanesque architecture is the great common thread. We find it in Taüll, 1,500 metres up in the Vall de Boí, with its churches of Sant Climent and Santa Maria; in Sant Joan de les Abadesses, beside the River Ter; in Talamanca, which grew up between its castle and its church; and in Os de Civis, a hidden corner that can only be reached from Andorra, whose residents saved their Church of Sant Pere from ruin.
Among the most beautiful villages in Catalonia there is also room for seigneurial power and industry. Cardona, dominated by the castle founded by Wilfred the Hairy in 886, preserves the memory of a line of dukes known as the kings without a crown. Castellar de n'Hug, in the Berguedà, combines the source of the Llobregat with the old Asland cement works, one of the most curious examples of industrial Modernisme.
The contrast comes from two very different places. Castellfollit de la Roca peers over the void from a basalt cliff in the Garrotxa and is one of the smallest municipalities in Spain. Cadaqués, by contrast, looks out to sea from the eastern tip of the Alt Empordà, with its whitewashed streets, its Church of Santa Maria on the hilltop and the memory of Dalí in Portlligat.
Monument guide
Monuments of Catalonia
Castles, cathedrals and monasteries in the region, in our guide.
10 monuments
Map of the villages
The 8 villages
VillageCadaqués
A fishing village at the easternmost tip of the Alt Empordà, Dalí's retreat at Portlligat, with whitewashed streets crowned by the church of Santa Maria.
VillageCardona
Coronada por un castillo fundado en el 886 por Wifredo el Velloso, Cardona guarda una joya románica, iglesias góticas y la memoria de sus duques, «los reyes sin corona».
VillageCastellar de Nuch
En el Bergadá, Castellar de n'Hug guarda las fuentes del Llobregat y una joya modernista: la antigua fábrica de cemento Asland del Clot del Moro.
VillageCastellfollit de la Roca
One of the smallest municipalities in Spain, perched on volcanic rock, with a medieval basalt old town and a history shaped by earthquakes and wars.
VillageOs de Civis
Un pueblo catalán de casas medievales al que solo se llega por carretera desde Andorra, con una iglesia románica de San Pedro rescatada de la ruina por sus vecinos.
VillageSant Joan de les Abadesses
Pueblo del Ripollés, en la confluencia del Ter y la riera de Arçamala, entre Ripoll y Camprodón: buena parada para recorrer el valle de San Juan.
VillageTalamanca
A medieval stone village in the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park, born between its castle and its Romanesque church, with wine presses, springs and waterfalls nearby.
VillageTaüll
A Pyrenean village perched at 1,500 metres in the Vall de Boí, where the Romanesque churches of Sant Climent and Santa Maria recall the medieval splendour of the lords of Erill.
