SANT PERE PESCADOR COSTA BRAVA

The village of 'St Peter the Fisherman' was built 3km back from the sea to provide a safe haven from pirates, with the unforeseen result that it has largely escaped the Costa Brava's tourist boom. While other fishing ports have been transformed into mass-market, modern resorts, Sant Pere Pescador remains a peaceful, workaday place, where farmers and fruit growers mingle with occasional foreign tourists on the banks of the River Fluvia. There is a 17thcentury baroque church and the remains of an old castle, but the real attraction of Sant Pere Pescador is its beach, a long and lonely stretch of sand on the shores of the Gulf of Roses. There are no high-rise hotels here, just campsites among the dunes; come out of season when the campsites are closed and you can have sweeping views of the bay all to yourself.

The coastline is protected from development by being part of the Aiguamolls de l'Emporda natural park. The protected area also includes the banks of the Fluvia, on both sides of the village. You can walk along well marked paths to reach the Ilia de Caramany, a wooded island and bird reserve created when the course of the river was diverted in 1979.

Close to Sant Pere Pescador are a number of interesting medieval villages, rising above the flat Empordan plain. Sant Miquel de Fluvia is best known for its 11th century Romanesque abbey, while Sant Tomas de Fluvia also has an 11th century priory church, with recently discovered murals