A couple of weeks ago my family and I spent a week near the Costa Brava. Because of the warm weather we mostly visited the nice beaches in the region. But a few times we braved the hot sun and went for some sightseeing, for instance to the lovely city of Pals.
Pals
When we were looking for a holiday destination for the summer and were searching for a nice place to stay we read a lot of recommendations about Pals.
Pals is a small medieval town in the province of Girona. Pals is quite a touristic place in the region and famous for its charming stone buildings and narrow cobblestone streets. When I added the pin on #worldmappin I was quite surprised that there wasn't a pin already in Pals.
It's nice to be the first to create a blogpost for this town. Pals really deserves this.
Pals played an important role during the middle ages. Located on a hill it was an important defensive stronghold.
From the town you have a nice view over the Costa Brava and the Mediterranean sea.
A remarkable building in Pals is the The Torre de las Horas (Tower of the Hours). The tower used to have a clock in it. While not especially tall, the tower is on the highest point of the town and it stands out when you drive up to the town. The Roman-style tower that dates back to the 11th century served as a watchtower.
We've visited a lot of old towns in Italy in the past and Pals really reminded me of those towns like Volterra, but it also reminded me of Gordes in France. Both of these towns are also located on a hill like Pals.
Pals also has these lovely narrow cobblestone streets without any cars. It would even be impossible for most modern cars to drive through these narrow streets.
I just love the large bougainvillea in the photo below. It makes the street a lot more colorful.
Despite the fact that the area is quite warm and dry, Pals is quite green. I think the locals are doing a great job to maintain the flowers and plants in the city center.
As every old town, Pals also has a church; the Church of Sant Pere.
The Church of Sant Pere is one of the oldest buildings in Pals, dating back to the 10th century. It's quite a modest building without much decoration.
The small church was opened for public and as you can see the inside also was quite basic. It has just a few stained glass windows and not many paintings and sculptures you see in many other churches.
When we visited the church a lady was playing a piano in the church. She played a nice classical piano song which sounded really good with the acoustics of the church.
After visiting the church we went on through the narrow streets. It's sometimes is a bit of a maze with all the narrow streets, and stairs. In some streets you could walk through one of the shops (They have a lot of them. I'll show you more about this alter on.) and walk out on the other end in another street.
Pals is quite a small town. Within a few minutes walking you end up on the other side of the town. Where you can see the Mediterranean sea on the other side, on this side of the town you have a nice view on the scenery of the Spanish countryside. This town really was on a strategic position in the middle ages since they could see enemies coming from all around whether it be from the land or the sea.
In the streets there are also a lot of these arches. I'm always amazed how these buildings are kept in such a good state although they date from the middle ages.
As I already mentioned; Pals is a real touristic town. You can tell this by the number of tourist shops. Touristic towns like this often have a lot of shops that all sell the same sort of stuff; mostly local delicacies or handmade products.
One of the things Pals is known for is its artisanal pottery and ceramics. The region has a long tradition of pottery making and many of the tourist shops sell handmade ceramics. You can find a wide variety of pottery often in colorful and traditional Catalan styles.
Although Pals is quite a small town I would really advise you to visit it as you are in the neighborhood. You won't be entertained all day, but a 2-3 hour visit gives you a nice impression of this lovely town.
I'll finish my blog with a couple of shots I made during our walk through the town.
I liked this tiny balcony with the blue shutters and the lantern hanging besides it against the plastered wall.
Here you see the Tower of the Hours in the back, but I was intrigued by the thing on the building with the logs. I think it is a sort of old torch that had functioned as a lantern in the middle ages, but I'm not sure about that. I have never seen this before.
This was a street on the outside of the town. Its a bit like a promenade.
Somewhere in between two narrow streets there was a tunnel under a building that lead to another street.
And as you can see there was a lot of green too.
I hope you liked my blog.
FriendlyMoose
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