Cabrera Castle

Cabrera Castle is a medieval fortification of the old county of Besalú, located between Maçanet de Cabrenys and Vajol, at the eastern end of the Salinas Massif. The ruins are on a steep granite rock, conical in shape, known as the Rock of Cabrera, which dominates the immediate valleys and offers magnificent views over the Alt Empordà and the Alta Garrotxa.

In documents from the year 1003 the Rock of Cabrera is already mentioned. But the first mention of the castle we find in 1098, in the Great Book of the Feus: "Guillem Bernat, son of woman Arsendis, swore in by the castle of Cabrera in Bernat II, count of Besalú "castrum de Cabrera cum sua et cum omnibus pertiis". The property of the castle was rigged with that of Maçanet and in 1221 belonged to Beatrice of Hortal and in 1275 to his son Mascarós. In 1288 it was taken and destroyed by the French army.

In 1330, Simó de Cabrera sold the castle and the lordship of Maçanet in Beatriz de Cabrenys lady of Cabrenys, Serrallonga and Reiners, which had the walls and roofs of the fortress rebuilt. In 1344, the son Guillem Galceran de Rocabertí, takes over the castle and in the capbreus always appears to be lord of Cabrera. In 1462 the French seized the castle where they established a garrison of 15 men under the command of a captain named Martin Durcayo. In 1497, the Castilian Jaume Olivet lived under the orders of Pere de Rocabertí, Baron de Cabrenys. Successively by inheritance the property passes to the families Paguera and Sorribes. In 1689 the building already consists of the castle as demolished.

Perched on an imposing granite rock at 852 m high are the remains of the castle, only accessible from the north; on the side of noon a vertical timba of 65 m opens. The castle occupied the entire summit and this made it a magnificent watchtower. It had an extension of 189 square meters and a perimeter of 76m. Today the remains of the fortress rise to the edge of the cliffs, these reduced to a cistern, the base of a square tower and some walls of 2 meters high. The construction type can be dated to the 11th-14th centuries and was part of the border network of the county of Besalú.