Vila Vella – Tossa de Mar
The only fortified medieval town on the Catalan Coast.
Vila Vella (The Old Town) is the most visited tourist attraction in Tossa de Mar. It has seven towers and from 70 meters high it offers a panoramic view over Bay of Tossa and the mountains of La Selva.
Very little is preserved from the 12th century – when it was initially built – as it was attacked and burned by the French in 1285 and most of its walls demolished. But a century later new fortifications were built. What can be seen today are various reforms from the 14th and 18th centuries although the walls surround almost all the original area. In the 16th century these walls protected the old town against the attacks of pirates who mostly came from North Africa. The cannons pointing to the sea, the watchtowers and the fortification itself are testimonies of those troubled times.
The most photographed outlook in the Old Town is the 15th century ruin of Sant Vincent Gothic church. It was destroyed in the 19th century when the French armies led by Napoleon stored ammunition inside the building that exploded probably by accident. Then it was even more demolished when the locals used part of its materials for the construction of their houses. But what’s left today is still an imposing sight.
Probably another point of interest would have been the 12th century castle which was demolished in 1917 to build a lighthouse, fourteen years before the complex was declared a national monument.
In the gothic building Casa del Governador, built in the 14th century stands today the Municipal Museum. Here it is displayed the mosaic of a Roman villa located nearby with the inscription “Turissa”, the Roman name of Tossa de Mar, one of the many proofs that the promontory was already occupied in the Roman times.
Vila Vella: 41.716145, 2.933972