Tossa de Mar

Tossa de Mar, called “Paradís Blau” by the painter Marc Chagall, who stayed in Tossa in the 1930s, is an essentially Mediterranean town that has maintained the character of its seaside neighborhood and has made an effort to preserve its natural environment. Today it offers a modern tourist infrastructure, equipped with a wide range of tourist accommodation and complemented by a good gastronomic, sports, commercial, entertainment and recreational offer.

The coastline, interspersed with numerous beaches and coves, forms one of the most emblematic landscapes of the Costa Brava and extends from the Vallpresona stream, to the east, to Cala Morisca, located to the south.

The mountain area, with a good layout of marked trails, will allow the nature lover to enjoy one of the great treasures of Tossa: its natural heritage and its landscape.

The municipality has 3 signposted walking routes and 4 routes adapted for mountain biking that show the diversity of landscapes and the richness of the surroundings of the Ardenya Cadiretes massif. The coastal stretch offers a view of a spectacular typically Mediterranean landscape with cliffs, turquoise waters and coves that can be enjoyed by following the coastal path to the north and south of the town.

This natural beauty is complemented by an important historical and artistic heritage, of which we will mention its most outstanding elements.

The Roman villa of los Ametllers (1st century BC–5th century AD), is one of the most interesting that has been found in what was the ancient Roman province of Tarraco.

This villa seems to have belonged to a high military position in the Roman Empire. It was dedicated especially to the cultivation of vineyards and the export of widely consumed wine, which was normally sent to Rome for consumption by soldiers on campaign. It is a classic example of agricultural exploitation in the Roman Mediterranean area, which perfectly combines the exploitation of the territory, which in the case of the town of los Ametllers extended through a good part of the municipality of Tossa, with the luxury and comforts of their owners. The activity of this town gradually faded until the s. VIII, time of the Islamic invasion and the subsequent process of feudalization, which caused radical changes in the social sphere and in the agrarian space.

The first written news that refers to Tossa appears in a document from the year 881. In the year 966, the Count of Barcelona left in his will in the monastery of Santa María de Ripoll, founded by his grandfather, the valley of Tossa with the churches of Saint Lyonce and Saint Vincent. The term was sparsely populated by peasants who lived inland in small farmhouses and huts, and by fishermen who gathered around the ruins of the Roman town of los Ametllers, where their cemetery was also located. But the monastery did not take possession of the donation until the year 1097. Almost a century later, in 1186, thanks to the progressive reconquest of the maritime routes by Christianity, the increase in population and the request of the hills, that were continually threatened by pirates coming from North Africa, Abbot Ramon de Berga granted a franchise and settlement letter and had a castle built on the highest part (now disappeared) of Cabo de Tossa, as well as a walled enclosure, in order to protect its future inhabitants. This is how the promontory gradually began to be urbanized, which, with few changes, has remained until today, so that a stable population could dedicate itself to trade and fishing.

The walled enclosure of Vila Vella, declared a historical-artistic monument in 1931, is the only example of a fortified medieval town that still exists on the Catalan coast. Built at the beginning of the s. XIII with battlemented walls, preserves almost the entire original perimeter area. The wall lock distributes four towers and three cylindrical towers topped by machicolations. The best-known towers are the Joanàs tower, which presides over the bay; the Torre de las Horas, located at the entrance to the parade ground, which owes its name to the fact that it was the only place where there was a public clock, and the tower of Es Codolar, also known as Torre del Homenaje, which presides over the beach of It's Codollar. It is worth noting the magnificent voussoired portal that gives entrance to the Vila Vella through the parade ground.

At the highest point of Vila Vella there was the castle, which consisted of a watchtower and a room with a rectangular floor plan. Currently it does not exist, since its location was used to build the current lighthouse. The interior of Vila Vella is a charming space of narrow alleys paved with rounded stones, which at the time of maximum splendor (15th century), integrated about eighty houses, many of which took advantage of the wall of the wall as a wall of background.

From the s. XVI the population began to expand outside the walls and the first buildings were erected in the neighborhood of sa Roqueta and following the royal road, which originated the current population.

The 16th and 17th centuries saw the greatest maritime development in Tossa. There was an important fishing fleet and numerous cabotage boats, which were dedicated to the trade of products from the sea and the forest: salting, firewood, charcoal, cork, salted meat, etc. In the S. XVIII there were even some ships of families of Tossa that were dedicated to the trade with America.

From the s. In the 19th century maritime activity began to decline and was practically concentrated on fishing and salting. Meanwhile, a new economic activity was growing based on the cork industry and the production of stoppers, which continued until the beginning of the s. XX.

It was in the 20th century that Tossa stood out in the artistic field. The town had been an attraction for many artists for years and the beauty of its landscape had already inspired many works at the end of the s. XIX. But it was in the s. XX, during the first five years of the thirties, that Tossa became a pole of attraction for artists of all disciplines and origins, becoming an important nucleus of the avant-garde. Without forgetting the country's artists such as Rafael Benet or Pere Creixams, who were already in Tossa, artists of the stature of Marc Chagall, André Masson or Georges Kars, who settled and worked in the town, some of them at the end of the war. Civil, when this very fruitful period was cut short. But before that unfortunate historical moment arrived, a group of intellectuals sensitive to art founded the Municipal Museum, with the intention of recording what was being created at that time and the archaeological legacy that remained in Tossa and that came from the site of Els Ametllers. It was located in the old house of the mayor of the sack or governor and was inaugurated on September 1, 1935, becoming the first museum of contemporary art in the Spanish State.

The difficult post-war years came. In 1950, the filming of the movie " Pandora and the Flying Dutchman " meant a great positive impact on the local economy, because it made Tossa known in the world, assuming the greatest promotion of Tossa in all of history, which gave way to to a tourism industry that has continued to this day.

Tossa's cuisine is another remarkable aspect of the population. Fresh fish and shellfish are undoubtedly the star products of its gastronomy, but it also includes an important presence of vegetables, legumes, meat and fruit, often cooked in a casserole based on patiently prepared sauces, and with the final touch of the taste provided by the bites so characteristic of the area.

Tossa de Mar celebrates three annual gastronomic campaigns, where it has the participation of the restaurants of the municipality: The Traditional Tossenca Kitchen, which is celebrated throughout the year, the Noodles at the Casserole, in the month of June, and the Kitchen of the Cim i tomba, during the month of September.