Costa Brava

The Costa Brava follows the Mediterranean shore of Girona from Blanes to the French border. Cap de Creus carries the eastern end of the Pyrenees into the sea, producing rocky cliffs, coves and sheltered inlets. Southward, the Gulf of Roses opens behind sandy barriers, while smaller bays alternate with headlands around the Montgrí and Gavarres uplands. These natural harbours provide many local approaches, but few wide roads inland.

The coast was already part of Mediterranean exchange when Greek traders founded Emporion about 575 BCE near the later settlement of Sant Martí d’Empúries. Its bay joined Iberian coastal communities to Greek and Phoenician shipping. Fishing villages later occupied coves around Roses, Palamós and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, using the same reefs and protected water for catches, salt and short-haul trade. Upland paths connected these small ports with farms and markets in the coastal hinterland.

The name Costa Brava, meaning rugged coast, describes this shore rather than a medieval province. Its older identity lies in the workings of this coast itself: vines, cork and olive country reaching toward the sea, fishing fleets based in narrow bays, and shipping that passed Cap de Creus between Catalonia and France.