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sAgaro Holidays
sAgaro, where architecture and nature are in balance |
sAgaro, where architecture and nature are in balance
Tourist information about sAgaro in Spain. Travel to sAgaro and let Spain-Holiday.com guide and accommodate you |
SAgaró has become an area of balance between architecture and nature, a unique oasis, planning for the future and respect for the landscape. The housing estate extends between the Beach of Sant Pol and that of Sa Conca, located on a hillock overlooking narrow rocky coves, and surrounded by a coastal path of two kilometres, converted in a pathway between pines and flowers and on the edge of the steep cliffs and coves, from where it is possible to contemplate all the shades of blue of the Mediterranean.
SAgaró has a short, but rich history. In 1916 Josep Ensesa i Pujals, a flour producer from Girona permuted the debts of a baker in Sant Feliu de Guíxols for a block of land at the foot of the hill. In 1923, Josep Ensesa i Gubert, took advantage of the promise of his father to give the block of land in SAgaró to his first son to build there, resulting in the emblematic home Senya Blanca (1924). The architect Rafael Masó i Valentí, with great artistic feeling, enthusiastically accepted the ambitious project of the Encesa to construct a residential city and make SAgaró a small Catalan village integrated into the environment.
This style resulted in Senya Blanca (1924), the pergolas of Plaça del Roserar (rose garden), the Sibils home (1929), or the Gorina home (1931) among others. During these same years new constructions were also developed: the luxurious Hotel Monumental, the Baths of Sant Pol and the Hostal de la Gavina.
It was then that SAgaró became a Mecca for artists and men of letters and the theatre and Catalan and Spanish politicians, and there were numerous parties, dinners, balls, Sardanas, flower battles and sporting and nautical outings, which all came to an end with the outbreak of the Spanish civil war.
SAgaró did not undergo any new building activity until 1941 with the intervention of the architect Francesc Folguera responsible for the church of Our Lady of Hope, the loggia of Senya Blanca and the Coastal Path of SAgaró, architecturally quite different from the rough paths of the rest of the Costa Brava coastline. The final work for reconditioning the path were completed in October 2001 at a cost of 1.4 million Euros. The last outstanding architect to work on the development of the estate was Adolf Florensa after 1960, he was responsible for the most recent extensions to the Hostal de La Gavina and two matching homes at the highest point of SAgaró.
Cinema and music have always had a close relationship with SAgaró. Especially outstanding are the films Pandora (1950) with Ava Gardner and Mario Cabré, Mr. Arkadin (1954) directed by Orson Welles, and more recently The Sea Inside (2004) by one of Spains internationally famous film-makers, Alejandro Amenábar, winner of the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2004. The various stages of the International Music Festival held each summer have further reinforced the historical association of SAgaró with music.
Another attraction of SAgaró is Puig Pinell, one of the largest parks in the town and ideal lookout over the Main Beach and the bay of Sant Antoni de Calonge and Palamós. Neither should we skip over the characteristic rotating compass of 60 meters in diameter, recognised as the largest in the country by the Catalan Book of Records . Of special importance also is the sculptural group of three sails each 10 meters high and capable of turning to indicate the direction of the wind.
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See a map over sAgaro
