Route Albera Peralada - Les Cigonyes

EL CELLER DE PERELADA
is launching a new event every Thursday from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, during the months of July and August, called ENDE-VI-NA:

End your day in our Mediterranean garden, among aromatic plants and incredible sunset views. Choose the type of wine to taste and enjoy ENDE-VI-NA, an activity where you discover which wine you've been served.

It's a reason to have fun, compete, or simply an extra topic for conversation, as the sun sets and wine and music accompany your moment.

Includes

• Advance Ticket: 3 tastings (with prior reservation)
• Same-Day Ticket: 2 tastings (sold at the box office)

Reintroduction of the White Stork at Peralada Castle

In the spring of 1998, a pair of storks successfully nested for the first time in the gardens of Peralada Castle. This was the result of an effort that had begun three years earlier, when the Suqué Mateu family initiated a project to get these emblematic birds to settle in the castle gardens.

With the help of the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Natural Park, the same reintroduction system used in that protected area was implemented at Peralada Castle. This involved an initial investment of 40,000 euros for the garden's adaptation. Since then, our stork colony has grown year after year. Currently, about 30 pairs raise approximately fifty chicks each year.

Thanks to this reintroduction project, the stork population has become established in Girona, where these birds were historically not very abundant.

The DO Empordà

This is a historic wine denomination that produces wines touched by the tramuntana wind, which gives them personality by concentrating the sugars and aromas of the grapes. Garnacha and Carignan are the jewels of the DO, with great varietal richness, as it produces all varieties of Garnacha and Carignan—black, white, and red. The range of wines includes reds, whites, rosés, sweet, and sparkling wines.

Peralada Castle

In the 9th century, it was mentioned as Castell Toló and was the center of the County of Peralada. The current building was built after the fire that affected it in 1285 during the French invasion of Empordà, in the crusade against the Crown of Aragon undertaken by Philip the Bold. The viscounts of Rocabertí decided to move it outside the walls, and around the 14th century, the construction of the Gothic building began. Few vestiges of this remain, as it has been restored on several occasions over the last centuries. A significant part of these restorations was carried out in the 16th-17th centuries. In the 18th century, the interior was rebuilt, and from 1875, the last viscounts of Peralada commissioned a remodeling project from the French architect Grant. The dynasty of the viscounts of Peralada began with Berenguer, son of Count Ponç I of Empúries, who became the lord of Peralada after his father's death. Later, the viscounts carried the surnames Quermançó and Rocabertí. The neo-medieval interventions and the garden, designed in 1877 by François Duvilliers, correspond to this period.

In the mid-14th century, a second and larger walled enclosure was built, and the new palace of the Rocabertí family was erected outside the walls. In 1472, during the War of the Remences, King John II once again invaded and occupied the castle, and years later, in 1599, Viscount Francesc Jofre de Rocabertí was invested as Count of Peralada by Philip III of Castile.

The castle was acquired in 1923 by the businessman Miquel Mateu i Pla, who gathered a notable art collection there (glass, ceramics, painting, books, manuscripts) and sponsored the publication of erudite books as the Biblioteca de Peralada. Currently, the property remains in the hands of the Mateu family and cannot be fully visited. However, a part of the castle houses a casino, and the gardens are open in July and August for the Peralada International Music Festival. There is also the Peralada Castle Museum, which occupies the neighboring Carme convent, now belonging to the same owners.