To the north of Besalú there are a series of fascinating Romanesque churches, built between the 9th and 12th centuries.
Although it may be more practical to travel to each of the churches by car, it’s also worth considering visiting them on foot, walking from one to another along the various signposted paths found in this area.
Sant Pere de Lligordà, in Beuda, is a 12th-century church with the door facing the south façade, a nave with a rectangular floor plan and a semicircular apse.
Santa Maria de Palera, also in Beuda, has a barrel-vaulted ceiling supported by two transverse arches and crowned on the east side with a semicircular apse. It contained a Gothic Virgin Mary carved in alabaster, which can now be seen at the Girona Art Museum.
Nearby, the Sant Sepulcre de Palera church is a remarkable Romanesque building dating back to the 11th century. The church, consecrated in 1085, is built on large carefully hewn ashlars. It consists of three naves, the centre with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and the lateral ones with quarter round barrel vaults, supported by rectangular pillars with their corresponding apses. The bell tower, with two openings, stands on the west façade.
Another attraction is the church of Sant Feliu de Beuda, dating back to the 11th century, with a highly appreciated 12th-century baptismal font, decorated with figures in relief and blind arches.
Going farther east we come to Santa Maria de Segueró, a Romanesque church from the 11th century with a single nave, which conserves a polychrome image of the Virgin (14th century) carved in alabaster.
Once we arrive in the village of Maià de Montcal we find the church of Sant Vicenç, which dates back to 978, and in addition to having a rectangular nave and a circular apse facing the east, a very unusual latch still remains on the entrance door.
Right on the border with the Alt Empordà, in a spot with panoramic views over the entire Empordà plain, stands Santa Magdalena de Maià (13th century), a church of the former priory of Santa Maria de Jonqueres (13th century), which has a pointed barrel-vaulted nave and a quarter-circle vaulted apse.
Finally, the church of Sant Martí (12th century), located in the hamlet of Dosquers, has a single nave crowned by a barrel vault and a semicircular apse, along with the Sant Prim and Sant Felicià chapel, next to which we find a generous spring, which, according to tradition, burst forth to quench the thirst of those transporting the relics of the saints to the Sant Pere Monastery in Besalú.
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NEARBY ROUTES
- Climb up to the Mare de Déu Mont from Beuda
- Farmhouses of the West Route
- The Balcony of la Garrotxa Route
- Circular, Half-marathon Route - Mare de Déu del Mont (MdM)