S'Agaró

S'Agaró sits on the Costa Brava between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Platja d'Aro, in the Baix Empordà region of Girona. Before it was developed, the land was largely barren and rocky, with some pine woodland, a few cultivated fields mainly given over to vines, and a handful of agricultural sheds.

The story of the town begins in 1916, when a Girona industrialist, Josep Ensesa Pujades, acquired a plot at the headland known as Punta de Pau — land he received in lieu of a debt. He commissioned the architect Rafael Masó, who had already worked for him, to build a house there. When Masó reported practical difficulties with the terrain, Ensesa bought the adjacent plot as well. Finding himself with more land than he needed, he began to think about subdividing and selling off parcels — less for profit, he said, than to secure good neighbours. That idea grew into a plan for a summer residential development, which prompted further land purchases.

The First World War interrupted progress, but the project was revived in the early 1920s, encouraged by the growing popularity of the nearby Sant Pol beach and by Ensesa's son, Josep Ensesa i Gubert, and by Masó himself. In 1924, Ensesa Gubert decided to build a summer house on his father's land — again designed by Masó — and that building, called La Senya Blanca, became the first completed villa of the development.

Masó then planned the whole site, laying out public spaces including squares, avenues, stairways, and sports and social facilities, all woven together with the individual villa plots. He also upgraded the bathing area with the Restaurant dels Banys, opened in 1929, and converted two villas into the luxury Hostal de la Gavina, which was inaugurated in 1932 though it had been operating as a hotel before that date. The architectural ensemble includes La Senya Blanca, the Hostal de la Gavina, and a number of named villas — Domus Nostrum, Ensesa, Faixat, Gorina, Roquet, Graziella, Nurimar, Elimar, Lolimar, Roca Blanca — as well as a house Masó designed for himself. A sculpture, the Venus de S'Agaró by Joan Rebull, also forms part of the ensemble. The earliest buildings rose around the Plaça del Rosal, the development's central hub, with construction then moving southeast along the seafront. The overall style was Noucentisme — ordered, harmonious, aimed at the wealthy upper bourgeoisie.

Masó's death and the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) halted building. Work resumed in the 1940s under architect Francisco Folguera, who followed Masó's general plan while adding his own touches. Folguera designed the Church of Our Lady of Hope (Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza, built 1941–1943) in a Neo-Baroque style, began work on the Camino de Ronda coastal path through wooded terrain above the sea, redesigned the gardens of La Senya Blanca, and added a Brunelleschian loggia still visible today on the Ensesa estate.

From the outset, the Ensesa family and Masó actively promoted S'Agaró through newspapers, magazines, tourism conferences, and advertising, and organised concerts and other leisure events. The original residential core was declared a protected historic ensemble and a national cultural asset in 1995. In 2024 the development marked its centenary, with 24 July as the specific commemoration date; informational panels about its history were installed along the Camino de Ronda to mark the occasion.