El castillo de San Juan (en catalán, castell de Sant Joan) es una fortificación española situada en la cima del cerro San Juan en Blanes (Gerona). Desde allí, a 180 metros de altitud, se puede contemplar una vista de la ciudad y la comarca de la Selva y, por el sur, en los días despejados, se puede llegar a divisar la silueta del monte Montjuic en Barcelona.
El castillo fue construido por orden de Grau de Cabrera a mediados del siglo XIII sobre una fortificación existente. En el siglo XVI se levantó una torre de vigilancia para dominar la panorámica y atalayar a corsarios y piratas bárbaros del Mediterráneo. Luego fue vendido a Francesc Montcada, conde de Aitona.

Castillo de San Juan (Blanes)

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El Castillo de Vidreras o Castillo de San Acisclo es un castillo ubicado en la localidad gerundense de Vidreras, en la Selva. Hoy en día el castillo se encuentra abandonado, y aparte de limpiar la vegetación no se ha hecho ninguna actuación de consolidación o excavación con toda regla. Se llega siguiendo el camino que lleva a la Torre de Llobet y los pantanos.
Los restos del castillo se muestran en una planta fuerte cuadrangular de unos 30 metros por lado. Se pueden detectar dos fases constructivas: la primera fase del siglo XII y XIII incluye la torre sureste de 15 metros de altura y tres pisos, muros adosados, cisterna y capilla dedicada a San Acisclo y Santa Victoria, de la que quedan restos de las paredes y del ábside semicircular. La segunda fase data del siglo XIV, incluye el resto de las torres, muros ataludados y revestimientos de muros antiguos. Alrededor del castillo aún se conserva el foso.
Historia
Este castillo perteneció a los vizcondes de Cabrera y la primera noticia que se tiene es del 1194 como consecuencia de un pacto entre el vizconde Ponç III de Cabrera y el rey Alfonso II de Aragón, el Casto. En 1241 fue dado a la Orden del Temple pero volvió a los Cabrera.
En la capilla del castillo se conservaban los restos de San Acisclo de Córdoba hasta que fueron donados en 1263 al monasterio de San Salvador de Breda por el vizconde Guerau IV de Cabrera,​ En 1310 residía Leonor, esposa del vizconde Bernat I de Cabrera. Fue ocupado por remensas durante la última guerra remensa y fue devuelto en 1485. Perdió su función militar, hasta el punto que la finca ocupada por el castillo pasó a manos de la familia Aulet, y fue aprovechada como explotación forestal.

Castillo de Vidreras

El castillo de Torcafaló, o de Torcafelló, o de Torcafeló, es un castillo situado en el municipio de Massanet de la Selva, construido alrededor del año 1080, documentado desde el 1106, y que funcionó entre los siglos XI y XIII.
Historia
El antiguo castillo comprendía la demarcación de Massanet de la Selva, con el pueblo de Martorell de la Selva, propiedad de los Cabrera, que desde el siglo XII formó el centro de una alcaldía del vizcondado de Cabrera.
La primera noticia segura es del año 1106, en que Guillermo Ponce del linaje de los Cabrera juró fidelidad al conde Ramón Berenguer I por los castillos de Blanes, Argimón y Cabrera. Desde el año 1231 tenía castellanos o alcaldes que residían permanentemente. En 1450 se autorizó la construcción de una capilla a Sant Jorge.
El topónimo de Torcafelló persistió en diferentes documentos hasta el siglo XVI en que se pierde toda noticia documental del castillo de Torcafelló, pero, en cambio, en la cima del cerro de San Jorge donde estuvo el castillo, aparece una capilla dedicada al santo. Esta en el siglo XIX fue en torre de telegrafía óptica.
El conjunto fue objeto de una restauración y de una rehabilitación llevadas a cabo por Juan Francisco Machado junto a el Taller de Historia de Massanet entre los años 1988 y 1997, y de unas excavaciones arqueológicas entre los años 1999 y 2006 que permitieron descubrir la mayor parte de los restos enterrados del castillo.
Características
El conjunto monumental actual está compuesto por la capilla de San Jorge, del siglo XV (fortificada en el siglo XIX cuando fue convertida en torre de telegrafía óptica) y los restos del castillo medieval de Torcafaló.
El cercado de murallas, cierra una superficie de unos 18 metros de ancho por 25,5 metros de largo. El muro, ligeramente ataludado, tiene un grosor de 1 metro. Un foso recorre todo el exterior, con una anchura de 2,5 metros, a partir del cual hay un segundo muro que rodea toda la antigua muralla. Actualmente se puede ver la capilla, dedicada a San Jorge, y restos del muro y del foso.

Castillo de Torcafaló

The Castle of Santa Florentina (Spanish: Castillo de Santa Florentina) is an 11th-century medieval castle in Canet de Mar, Catalonia, Spain.
It was built on the foundations of an Ancient Roman villa by Guadimir de Canet (born 1024). In the 16th century, it passed into the hands of Dimas Muntaner. In 1908, it hosted King Alfonso XIII, who made the castle's owner Ramon de Montaner i Vila count of Canet. In 1910, the castle was expanded and renovated by the modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and its facade acquired some gargoyles by the sculptor Carles Flotats i Galtés. The magazine Architectural Digest covered the castle as among the "most beautiful houses in the world" in 1998 on account of its harmonious fusion of Gothic and Modernist designs.
The castle is listed as a cultural heritage monument (Bien de Interés Cultural), no. RI-51-0005232. It is private property and hosts a museum that can be visited by appointment, as well as a yearly festival of classical music. Among the museum's collections are many works by Catalan artists dating back to the early 20th century. In 2015, the castle was selected as a setting for the sixth season of the fantasy television series Game of Thrones.

Castle of Santa Florentina

We know that Montsoriu hill was settled in Iberian times, although the finding of a hatchet on the hill could push the settlement date back to the Neolithic era. In Iberian times there was a working settlement on the highest part of the hill, near the current keep. The dating of the Iberian settlement at Montsoriu is placed around the 4th to 3rd century B.C., based on the Iberian ceramics found in dumps around the lower area of the castle. This settlement was probably related to other Iberian settlements in the area, such as those that were possibly located on the hill of Hostalric Castle, the hill of Buixalleu, the hill of la Moneda, or the hill of the Torre de la Mora.
It would not be, however, until the medieval period that we once again find evidence of human settlement on the Montsoriu hill. At the beginning of the 10th century, in the year 923, the consecration act of the parish church of Arbúcies mentions the toponym Montsoriu as the name of some farmhouses located at the limits of the parish. From this moment on, in the first decades of the 11th century, there is no doubt about the existence of a fortification on the Montsoriu hill. This fact is confirmed by the stratigraphic sequences and architectural findings from the pre-Romanesque period in the upper enclosure of the castle (chapel, keep, and cistern), that would shape this primitive fortified core.
Throughout the 11th, and especially the 12th centuries, the castle would become the seat of the Viscounts of Girona, and soon enough they became related to the house of Cabrera, eventually changing their name to Viscounts of Cabrera. The daughter of Amat de Montsoriu, named Ermessenda, married Guerau de Cabrera in 1033, and with her husband, would become the founder in 1038, of the benedictine monastery of Sant Salvador de Breda, the spiritual centre of the viscount’s territories. From that moment on, the history of Montsoriu Castle and the villages and places that made up the viscounty of Cabrera–Girona would be intrinsically tied to the history of the Cabrera family.
During the 14th century, the castle would become the Gothic palace and residence of the Viscounts of Cabrera, one of the most important families of the Principality. Calculations show that in the combined dominion of the Cabreras around the year 1360, there were 4,071 focs or families, which could correspond to about 20,455 inhabitants. This number amply exceeded the subjects of the rest of the lords of the country, who on average did not reach 2,000 families. During this period the Viscount of Cabrera was the great Bernat II of Cabrera (1298-1364), privy to king Pere III and tutor of the infant Joan, future king Joan I. His stand out role was in foreign policy of the catalan-aragonese crown as general captain of the navy, admiral of the Catalan fleet and counselor to the representatives of the military in the court of Cervera of 1359.
In 1354 he compiled the Ordinacions sobre lo feyt de la Mar, a maritime code for organizing the Catalan navy. Political and courtly intrigues would finally lead him to be accused of treason, and he was put to death in 1364 after an unjust trial. In 1356 King Pere III, as a reward for the loyalty shown by Bernat II of Cabrera and his son, Bernat III, created the county of Osona for him. This is how the properties of the Cabreras came to extend from the Bas valley and the Cabrerès right up to the sea. At this point in time the viscounty of Cabrera, in the hands of Bernat III (1350-1368), reached an extension of 14,000 square kilometres, with 87 villages, 5 walled towns, a great benedictine abbey in Breda, 4 more priories (also of the order of St. Benedict), 4 augustinian prebendaries, one Carthusian monastery, and one female monastery of the Cistercian order. It was one of the most important domains of the principality. This was the period of maximum splendour of the viscounty, but it also included periods of political and social instability, with the revolt of the viscounty against the king due to the death sentence handed out to Bernat II. During this stage, Montsoriu enjoyed a great process of urban reformation that started in 1347 by express mandate of Bernat II, who intended to convert the castle into his dominion’s greatest fortress.
During the 13th and 14th centuries Montsoriu Castle endured several attacks and sieges, and also served as a residence or shelter, such as when Philip the Bold of France attacked the county of Empúries and the viscountal family sought refuge in the castle. Later on, during the rebellion of the viscounty against King Pere III between 1365 and 1371, the king lay siege to the castle of Montsoriu with around 1,200 men, but failed to make it surrender. Montsoriu, with its system of concentric walls, the difficult access to the location and the magnificent water supply system, was virtually inexpugnable. A garrison could easily resist a lengthy siege inside the castle without having to surrender due to lack of water, thanks mostly to the great central cistern, but on top of that the castle had at least another three cisterns distributed around the enclosure.
The castle also had the function of protecting the farmers and villagers in case of danger, welcoming them inside the grounds to afford them shelter. We also know from historic documentation that Montsoriu Castle held a sizeable part of the viscounty’s written documents (books, scrolls, and cartularies), that contained accounts, fiefs, and other references to the vegueria and the history of the Cabrera family. To recap, the castle functioned as a small administration centre for its territory, which was the vegueria of Montsoriu.
At the beginning of the 15th century the fortress of Montsoriu lost one of its most important roles: that of residence of the lords, and in parallel its defensive functions were also relegated due to the new pyroballistic weapon technology. The abandonment of the castle was reflected in the deterioration of the buildings, which were probably also affected by the earthquakes of the second quarter of the 15th century.
Between the years 1462 and 1472, a period known as the Catalan Civil War, the castle was also the site of several war episodes. In 1463 there were only 10 men posted at Montsoriu Castle. During the Catalan Civil War the castle was taken by the troops of the Principality, and finally it passed into royal hands. In 1480 Anna I of Cabrera, Viscountess of Cabrera and Bas, Countess of Osona and Mòdica, Baroness of Montclús and of Caccamo and Alcamo (1477-1526), in obeyance of King Ferran the Catholic, married Fadrique Enríquez, Grand Admiral of Castile and cousin to the king. Debts and continuous sales a carta de gràcia (conditional sales, similar to a pawnshop) in favour of Francesc de Montcada, Count of Aitona, enabled Francesc de Montcada to take over the territories of the old viscounty of Cabrera between the years 1566 and 1574, for a price of 273,000 pounds. In 1626 the vegueria of Montsoriu Castle was purchased by the Sarriera family, counts of Solterra. From this moment on, Montsoriu would only be inhabited on counted occasions, for military reasons. Thus, during the Guerra del Segadors (Reaper’s War) in 1653, Montsoriu was occupied by an Irish regiment that changed sides while serving under the Viceroy Juan José de Austria and was incorporated into the army of the King of France, aided by the Miquelets of Arbúcies. During this period (1646) the lord of the castle was Joan de Saleta Ponsich, and in 1667 the caretakers were the Matamala family, from Sant Hilari Sacalm, who sold the hill of Montsoriu and the New House of the castle built in the Witches square (1713) to Quirze Pascual. In 1757 the viscounty had already passed into the hands of the Dukes of Medinaceli, by marriage between this family and that of the Marquis of Aitona, and they undertook conservation work which the inhabitants of the castle’s territory were under the obligation to collaborate with.
The rediscovery of the history of Montsoriu can be related to its discovery by hikers and romantic writers of the preceding century, but it would not be until 1914-1915 that the first archaeological cataloguing of the monument takes place, with blueprints by Jeroni Martorell, tasked by the Monument Catalogue Service of the Diputació de Barcelona. Later on, the organization Amics de l’Art Vell (Friends of Old Art), a private association dependent on the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, gets involved in the situation of the monument thanks to Manuel de Genovart. At the same time, during these decades of the 1920’s and 1930’s, the ascent to the castle becomes a popular excursion for many hiking entities. Also, between 1932 and 1936 there was a hiking group named Montsoriu in Barcelona. In spite of this, it would not be until the second half of the 20th century that civil society starts to articulate several attempts to recover the castle; for example, in 1949 the Arbúcies town council proposes its conservation. Also, in 1970 the Spanish Association of Friends of the Castles, with Lluís Monreal in charge, starts a campaign for the recovery of Montsoriu, which they assess as one of the most important fortresses of Catalunya. However, it would not be until the creation of the Ethnological Museum of the Montseny that this entity elaborates several reports and course of action proposals between the years 1981 and 1987. These will have a direct incidence on the development of a citizen’s awareness campaign, reaching its maximum expression in the social sphere with the creation of the Friends of Montsoriu Castle Association in 1992. This act of taking a stance by civil society, the receptiveness of the public institutions linked to the castle, and the approachability of the previous owners of the castle, the Ribot family, will allow the creation in 1994 of the Patronat del Castell de Montsoriu, the organisation in charge of managing the monument, and later, in 1998, the concession of the castle to its current owner, the Consell Comarcal de la Selva, that has carried out the restoration campaigns since 1995.
The collaboration of different institutions has allowed the diverse restoration phases to go ahead, and starting in 2011 the monument was opened to the public.
http://www.montsoriu.cat

Montsoriu Castle

Farners Castle is a typical 12th-century feudal castle that has survived unaltered over the centuries, and this despite the fact that at the end of the Middle Ages, the lords of the castle (the Farners family, vassals of the Vilademany family), abandoned it to go and live in the town, next to the church in a large house that was destroyed much later on in the Carlist Wars.
Farners Castle is a small fortress, well adapted to the terrain and surprisingly well preserved. Although Farners is by no means the only castle in which you can climb to the top of the main tower, not many others give you the chance to walk along the sentry wall or cross a threshold that has existed for nine hundred years. You can complete this journey back in time with a visit to the church chapel, now called the Sanctuary of Mare de Déu de Farners, located at the foot of the hill.
http://www.laselvaturisme.com

Farners Castle

The origin of castle dates back to 1041. We therefore are speaking of a millenary fortification. At that time, in the middle of feudal centuries, nobles and knights agreed to deliver the lands located in the mountains of Vall d’Aro to the Benedictine monks of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, so that this territory would be protected from the Muslim influence, still present at that time in northern Catalonia.
The Castle suffered in 1462, during the so-called Remença War (and civil Catalan conflict for agricultural reasons), a fire. Also in 1879 an accidental explosion damaged the structure again, now completely restored.
Today the castle is a cultural center that welcomes traditional and avant-garde art exhibitions mainly from Platja d’Aro, around 5 halls whose names refer to historical figures related to the building. In these exhibitions important works have been shown, like those of well-known artists as Modest Cuixart, Lorenzo Quinn, or Pitxot a friend of Salvador Dalí.
Because of its high cultural and patrimononial richness, the Castell d’Aro little village is since 1996 considered as a Heritage of Cultural Interest by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the government of Catalonia.
http://en.blog.costabravas.com