If you want to have fun from dawn to dusk, enjoy one of the many beaches and coves on the Costa Brava, participate in the many water sports or have a round of golf on the many courses. Enjoy walks along the many lovely coastal paths.
There are many marinas on the Costa Brava, many of which provide the facility
for water skiing, windsurfing, motor boat and jet skiing.
Scuba diving is one of the great attractions on the Costa Brava, with a great many clubs in the Province, many of which offer a variety of courses with English-speaking instructors. There are many courses available in the area enabling you
to obtain an international diving qualification on completion.
Hot Air Ballooning is available all year round but is most impressive during January and February with visibility best in the early morning.
Sea kayaking is now very popular and with the largest Kayaking company based in L'Escala it is an ideal place to learn.
History / Places of Interest
As early as the sixth century BC, Greek merchants established trading posts along the Catalan coast, beforehand it was inhabited by proto-Iberian tribes. By the
third century BC, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians had settled. (Barcelona is
said to derive its name from the Carthaginian rulers Hamilcar and Hannibal
Barca ). Gradually they were replaced after the Punic wars by the Romans, who established Tarraco, now Tarragona, at their capital for northeastern Iberia. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Visigoths swept down from the north and took over as of the early fifth century AD.
Catalan Christians sought help from Charlemagne in the eight century in repulsing the Moorish invaders, after which local counts achieved effective independence from the Frankish kings. The period following the Reconquest and the reign of Wilfred the Hairy (857 - 902) is recognized as the origin of the Catalan nation, and Barcelona soon became the dominant political and military force in the region. By the 13th century, Barcelona rivaled Genoa and Venice as a maritime power, ruling over an empire that encompassed a large part of the Mediterranean. This is Catatonia's Golden Age. Prosperity led to the beginning of an important building boom, including many of the Romanesque and Gothic monuments described in this section. The union of Catalonia and Aragon through the marriage of Raman Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, and Petronila, heiress of Aragon, in 1137 as
well as the conquest of the Balearics and Valencia by Jaime I El conquistador spread the Catalan tongue and culture "from Salses to Guardamar and from
Fraga to Ma". Isabel, Queen of Castile, and Fernando King of Aragon, also joined their crowns by marriage in 1479 and thus Catalonia came to participate in Spain as a unified whole.
The 1640 revolt, during which the Catalans changed their allegiance to Louis XIII
of France, was crushed with the end of the 1652 siege of Barcelona by Don Juan
of Austria. When the Catalan's again attempted to secede from Philip V's monarchy during the Spanish War of Succession, Catalonia finally lost its privileges with the humiliating surrender of Barcelona on September 11, 1714, today "celebrated" as Catalonia's National day.
Forever prosperous, republican and separatist, the Catalan's regained their autonomy briefly during the Second Republic, 1932-1939, only to be crushed by Franco and the Nationalists, whose repression of everything Catalan lasted until the new Constitution of 1977 reestablished a measure of self government. Since then, Catalonia has flourished in every way, becoming Spain's leading economic region with almost 20% of GNP for a region that is only 6% of Spain's land mass and 15% of the population.
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