Foixà

Foixà is a village and municipality in the comarca (county) of the Baix Empordà.

Geography

The rural village of Foixà stretches from the right bank to the lower basin of the Ter river. It is divided into two main sections: la Vila (the village), which surrounds the old 13th century Castle of Foixà atop a hill, and L'Església (the church), near the parish church, of a less dense population.

The stream Foixà provides water to the village and empties into the Daró after Fontanilles, passing Ultramort and the Daró Mountains. The forests that surround it (about 1000 ha) are inhabited mainly by oaks and pines.

History

The first documentation found dates from 1019, when it belonged to the county of Empúries, just on the western edge and bordering the county of Girona. This fact gave rise to many armed conflicts. Foixà also suffered disputes between the counts of Empúries and the kings during the reigns of James II of Urgell and Peter IV of Aragon. Records show that in 1359, Bernat Alemany d'Orriols, cousin to queen Sibila of Fortia, came into discord with the count John I of Empúries starting an open war to the point that the count besieged the castle. Peter IV then intervened in favor of his wife's relative and John I was forced to sign a humiliating truce at his castle in Bellcaire.

Foix (river)

The Foix (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈfoʃ]) is a river in Catalonia in the province of Barcelona, northeastern Spain. Its source is near La Llancuna in the Comarca of Anoia 800 m above the sea. Later it runs through the Comarca of Alt Penedès, where it feeds a reservoir in the nature reserve of Parc del Foix since 1928, which is highly important for the drinking water supply of the densely populated coastal plain between Barcelona and Tarragona. Then it goes through the Comarca of Garraf from north to the south where it ends into the Mediterranean Sea west of the village of Cubelles. This little delta became an important natural reserve and recreational area after the campground ″Camping Paradiso″ was removed in the late 1990s.

For most of the year, the river is dried up because of the dam and because of hot-summer climatical reasons. That can suddenly change in the winter months when heavy rain comes down in the mountains.

See also