Castelló d'Empúries

Castelló d'Empúries is a town and municipality in the Alt Empordà.

The town lies 9 km east of Figueres.

The old town is somewhat dwarfed by the urbanisation of Empuriabrava. This urbanisation consists of a large number of canals with villas and moorings. Most of these villas are privately owned and many for rent or long term lease through agents. There is only a very small number of hotels in Empuriabrava, unlike the neighbouring urbanisation of Santa Margerida and others. It was planned in 1964 by Miquel Arpa Battle to resemble Miami and Venice. The majority of the land was originally owned by the Marques de Sant Mori as a small airstrip and base for his bird hunting trips.

Development commenced in 1967 with the final phase of the original plan completed in 1975. Since then areas have been developed without canals, differing from the original intentions and plans from the Ampuriabrava S.A., the initial developers. The town has more than 30km of canals and a summer population of around 80,000.

The town abuts the Natural Park of Aiguamolls.

A wide range of sporting activities are provided in the area including sailing, water-skiing, para-skiing, surfing, fishing, diving as well as a water park, the Aqua Brava, towards Roses. Empuriabrava has been the host for several international parachuting competitions, like the Barcelona Summer Olympics in 1992.