Castell de Sant Miquel (Gironès)

Castell de Sant Miquel sits atop the hill of Sant Miquel, straddling the municipalities of Girona and Celrà in the Gironès region. Its administrative jurisdiction is contested between Celrà and Girona; while it has been more closely linked to the parish and municipality of Celrà during medieval, modern, and contemporary times, a shift in favor of the comarcal capital appears to have occurred at the beginning of the Spanish democratic transition. This complex, surrounded by a moat, includes a chapel dedicated to Sant Miquel Arcàngel and a tower with a square base. It serves as a perfect example of the successive reuse of a space over time due to changing needs.

During the Middle Ages, there is belief that a fortified construction already existed on the site, evidenced by the presence of two cisterns and a section of wall with remains of an associated semi-circular tower. These elements may belong to a building preceding the chapel, possibly built for military and surveillance purposes, though the exact chronology is unknown. The first historical records of the site date to the middle of the fifteenth century, when construction began on a chapel dedicated to Santa Maria and Sant Miquel Arcàngel. The chapel has a single nave and a polygonal apse, taking advantage of the base of a previous circular tower. The nave was expanded in the eighteenth century. On the exterior, there was a bell tower in the middle of the nave, and the roof, initially made of brick arches, was replaced by a stone vault.

During the War of the French, the site was occupied by troops of the First French Empire as part of the operations of the second siege of Girona in 1808. In that year, the site was attacked by miquelet forces led by Joan Clarós, who drove the occupying troops to retreat to Campdorà. The chapel was again a focus of military attention during preparatory operations for the siege of Girona in 1809, when about one hundred units of the Tercio de Vic were forced to retreat from about five hundred men of the French army who fortified themselves there. The spouts visible today on the apse and side wall correspond to this period. After the War of the French, the chapel appears to have been destroyed.

In 1848, the remains of the chapel were used to build two towers for optical telegraphy. The tower on the south side is square-based with a talus base and several vents. The conflict of the War of the Matiners highlighted the need for a fast and secure communication network, leading to the installation of a tower on the ruins of the chapel's apse for the Madrid-French border military line. Additionally, a tower for the civil optical telegraph line was built nearby. This complex was fortified and a perimeter moat was constructed. These infrastructures became obsolete in 1856 with the launch of the electric telegraph, passing to the control of the Civil Guard.

The climb to the castle has become very popular since 2010, especially on weekends. The view from the tower is 360 degrees and includes the Costa Brava from Pals, the Pyrenees, the Guilleries, the Montseny, Rocacorba, the Serra de l'Albera, the Montgrí, the northern Montnegre, the Gironés plain, and the NW Gavarres with the peak of Puig Alt (Sant Martí Vell, with the Sanctuary of the Angels).

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons