Why go
Ancient sites make the region’s role as a Mediterranean meeting point visible. Empúries offers successive Greek and Roman layers, Ullastret shows the scale of an Iberian town, and Puig de Castellet relates settlement to coastal surveillance. Their differences matter more than trying to fit every ruin into one outing.
The full story
The coast formed both a route into the Iberian Peninsula and a place to settle. Megalithic monuments around Roses, the Gavarres and the Serra de Rodes mark a much earlier human presence than the later classical towns. At Ullastret, remains of houses, cisterns, grain silos and temples reveal the organisation of an Iberian community. The Indigetes inhabited this part of the coast before Roman rule. Puig de Castellet near Lloret offers a smaller fortified example whose position helped control the sea and surrounding land. Empúries brings Greek settlement and subsequent Roman occupation together near Sant Martí d’Empúries. Housing layouts, mosaics and public structures turn broad historical periods into spaces you can compare. Inland Girona, known to the Romans as Gerunda, became an important communication point, showing how power and movement also shifted away from the shore.