Vulpellac

Vulpellac appears in records as early as 894. Through the medieval period, rights over the settlement were shared between the counts of Empúries, the Bishop of Girona, and the priory of Sant Miquel de Cruïlles. By 1358 the Sarriera family had become lords of the town, and they rose to particular prominence during the Catalan civil war against Joan II.

In the 15th and especially the 16th century, they rebuilt the castle as a grand palace. The population followed the general pattern of the region until the early 20th century, when it began to decline, before recovering later with industrial growth centred on La Bisbal.

The original fortified enclosure that once ringed the village was substantially altered during the 15th and 16th century works on the castle-palace, but enough survives to trace most of its outline. A section of wall marking the south-east corner stands just metres from the church's apse and south wall. About 30 metres from the palace façade, a roughly 20-metre stretch of the western wall remains standing. At the north-west corner, a circular tower survives to around 8 metres in height, wedged between houses dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. Some 50 metres north of the palace stands a square gate-tower that likely formed the north-east corner of the enclosure; it is dated to the 13th or 14th century, a date that probably applies to the whole fortified perimeter.

During construction and excavation work in the area between the church's south wall and the fortifications, and beneath both the church and the castle-palace itself, a large number of graves came to light. They date from the 7th to the 10th century and fall into two types: simple slabs set vertically, and the so-called anthropomorphic form. The village also retains several substantial old houses with notable architectural details, dateable to the 15th through 17th centuries.