Breda

Human presence around Breda reaches back tens of thousands of years. A Levallois-type flint flake found near the Breda stream points to very early occupation, and Neolithic flint tools were discovered on the hill of Santa Anna around 4300 BC, followed by stone axes from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age around 2000 BC.

The first written record of Breda dates to 878, under Louis the Stammerer. The town's defining moment came in 1038, when Guerau I de Cabrera founded the Benedictine monastery of Sant Salvador, and the parish of Santa Maria was mentioned for the first time. In 1246 the relics of Sant Iscle and Santa Victòria were donated and transferred to the monastery.

Breda lived through repeated conflict. In 1640 villagers died fighting troops of Philip IV. In the War of Succession around 1700 the town sided with Charles of Austria against Philip V. During the Carlist Wars, townsfolk held out from the Romanesque bell tower against Carlists positioned in the town hall belfry in 1872, and the Carlists were finally defeated at the Battle of Repiaix in 1875.

The Civil War left deep marks. In 1936 six people were killed, and images, altars, bells and books were destroyed; the church served as a fuel depot and its sacristy as a food store. The parish church burned on 31 January 1939.

Recovery and recognition followed. The monastery was declared a National Monument in 1950, and in 1974 the old town was designated a protected historic-artistic ensemble and the Municipal Museum Josep Aragay opened. The pottery tradition, recorded in written notes as far back as 1583 and formalised with the Guild of Potters in 1777, was declared of artisan interest in 1987.

Breda grew up around the Benedictine Monastery of Sant Salvador, founded in 1038 by the Viscounts of Cabrera. Several of its buildings survive, including a large Gothic church — 33 metres long and 12.5 metres wide — and a Romanesque bell tower that gave the complex its long-standing nickname "the Cathedral of La Selva." The oldest structure may be the pre-Romanesque church of Santa Maria, now the town hall. There is also a hermitage dedicated to Santa Anna.

Much of the medieval heritage was damaged during the disentailments and the Civil War; the bell tower was later restored.