Monestir de Sant Feliu de Guíxols

The Benedictine monastery of Sant Feliu, founded in the 10th century, anchors the centre of town. The most distinctive part is the Porta Ferrada — a three-arched stone narthex from around 998 AD, embedded in the later monastery wall. Behind the portal lies the Romanesque-Gothic church (now used for occasional concerts) and the cloister, parts of which are open to visitors as part of the town's History Museum.

The monastery courtyard hosts the Festival de Porta Ferrada each summer, one of Catalonia's oldest music festivals, with concerts in the open-air square in front of the Porta. Even outside festival nights the square is the heart of evening strolling in town.

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A story
The Porta Ferrada — the iron-fortified door under the three-arched façade facing the sea — is one of the most distinctive pieces of pre-Romanesque architecture in Spain. It is a fragment of a 10th-century church narthex now embedded in the later monastery wall, and its three thin horseshoe arches are among the earliest surviving in Catalonia.