Saus, Camallera i Llampaies

The three towns are located in the Alt Empordà region, practically on the dividing line with the neighboring regions of the Baix Empordà and the Gironès, which is at the same time dividing the waters that tribute to the Fluvià and those that go towards the Conca from Ter.

The towns are close to the GE623 / 630 road, which goes from exit 5, in Orriols, from the A-7 motorway, between Girona and Figueres, to Castelló d'Empúries and L'Escala; an important route of tourist penetration that, in recent years, has been improved in all aspects.

Zipper

Camallera is the largest town and capital of the municipality formed by Saus. Here we find the Town Hall, as well as all municipal services.

The old town is located in the highest part and is quite small. They stand out, next to the church, four large ancestral homes: Can Ferrer Pagès, Can Feliu, Can Ferrer Fàbrega and Can Geli that practically, they share the property of most of the lands of the parish term. It is not until the end of the 18th century that the houses on Calle Nueva were built at noon, and on the east side the Raval emerged with the street of this name and of the Medio and the Atalaya (Name that gives to think that there was a watchtower of which surely nothing is kept).

In fact, already existed before, at noon and along the road (real) the neighborhood of San Sebastian, a few farms located in the vicinity of the chapel dedicated to this saint, s. XVI. From the last third of the nineteenth century, in a good part thanks to the construction of the railway station, the town grew a little anarchic, especially up the slope down the church to the station, ie, to the edge of the dried lake where Estany Street is.

We have knowledge of the first inhabitants of the town, when it existed without a defined name, by some archaeological remains that were discovered.

Sights at Camallera

The church of Sant Bartomeu

The church of Sant Bartomeu de Camallera we know, from the documents, that it already existed in the 13th century. From the Romanesque period, only the semicircular apse remained hidden, hidden by later constructions. You can only see its external structure from inside a house that is attached. This apse can be considered of the Romanesque period III. The current church is the product of a reform completed in 1951.

the rectory

The Vicaría, added to the southern wall of the church, is a two-story building that has been renovated at different times. On the main façade, which overlooks the Church Square, a lintel is placed in a small window that, according to the inscription, belongs to the work done by the Rector Mateo de Ribot in 1748.

The Hermitage of San Sebastià

This hermitage was erected in honor of the holy lawyer against the contagion and pestilence border of the royal road, about 300 meters from the town of Camallera in the direction of Gaüses. At its edge was born a neighborhood of 5 farmhouses. The hermitage of San Sebastià de Camallera is an eminently popular construction that, as the date of the facade indicates, was built in the second half of the 16th century.

Country houses of Can Ferrer Pagès, Can Feliu and Can Ferrer Fàbrega

Saus

The town of Saus has given its name to the Empordà municipality that also includes the towns of Camallera and Llampaies. Saus was, formerly, the most important nucleus of the surroundings. The town of Saus is the root of the old road that went from Girona to Castelló d'Empúries and Roses through Cervià, Camallera, Saus and Sant Mori. Many houses have been fixed in recent years and others are currently being improved.

Among the inhabitants of the town there are some name artists, as for example, and for many years, the Palmero family. Also the painter Montserrat Llonch was very rooted in the town, and the Carulla family of actresses.

In the small town of Saus, many discoveries have been made , such as the discovery of two Iberian silos, findings from the Roman era, finds from the medieval period and the discovery of the Cruz de Termino.

The church of Santa Eugènia is a religious building of Saus. It is of a nave with a semicircular apse at its eastern end. It is a characteristic monument of the evolutionary period called Romanesque III, datable in the XII-XIII centuries

Llampaies

The town of Llampaies is located in the eastern sector of the municipality, two km. rapporteur of Camallera. The landscape presents lands with soft undulations, fields of crops and small pine forests.

The town itself does not present any compact urban nucleus but is formed by neighbors of escaped masias. The neighborhood of the Church is the oldest neighborhood. At about 100 m. to the north, in a slightly higher place, is the Puig neighborhood, which is a group of houses, some of them interesting, from the 17th-18th centuries. The Masos neighborhood is 200 m. rapporteur of the Puig; their houses are prior to the end of the eighteenth century, most belong to the nineteenth century.

In Llampaies was found in 1974 a tip "levallois" of porphyry, classifiable the Middle Paleolithic. The find was made in the spot of the Sala and Estanyol, to the Adroer olive grove. In the vicinity of the town Roman pottery finds have been made in different places, which shows the existence of more than one place of settlement. In one of the Roman sites of Llampaies, not far from the present town, vestiges of a possible impluvium appeared. At the end of Llampaies, a Visigothic buckle was found, which is currently kept in the Archaeological Museum of Girona.

At Llampaies you can find the church of San Martí de Llampaies, a single nave with a semicircular apse and belongs to the Romanesque period III. There is also the rectory, it was sold to individuals and later restored, but still retains the bridge or corridor on the street that has reduced arches and a flat brick vault. The openings of the mansion are rectangular. To the lintels of the two windows dates from the sixteenth century.