Baix Empordà
The Empordanet Loop
Local Rider · By 
El Bidonet · Vetted by Gritline · Last ridden Jul 1, 2025
51 km·368 m
From sea level·Up to 102 m·51 km
The route
There's a corner of the Baix Empordà the locals call l'Empordanet, or the little Empordà, where medieval villages sit so close together you can almost see the next bell tower from the last. This loop strings a dozen of them onto 51 km of quiet lanes and gravel, and with barely 300 metres of climbing, the hardest part is not stopping in every single one. It's the second route from El Bidonet on Gritline, built for rolling and stopping, not racing.
Out of Fonteta, into the Middle Ages
We rolled out from Fonteta, a hamlet of the Forallac municipality beside La Bisbal d'Empordà, and within six kilometres you're at the first showpiece: Peratallada. Its name means “carved stone,” and it earns it. The moat carved straight into the bedrock is a rarity in Catalonia, and the golden-sandstone village is among the best-preserved medieval cores in the country. A couple of kilometres on, Palau-sator does the quieter version of the same trick: stone streets, covered passageways, and the 20-metre Torre de les Hores keeping watch over the plain.
Fields, a cider house, and the Daró
From Palau-sator you drop toward Sant Martí de Fontanilles, cutting through the fields and passing right by a local cider house on the way in. Then it's up to Gualta, which sits close to the Riu Ter and still carries a 60-metre medieval bridge over the water. The route then takes you alongside the Daró itself, the torrential little river of the Empordanet, and follows it down to Matajudaica, barely more than a cluster of stone houses. This is where the gravel earns its keep: the river sections here and after Rupià are the loop's real off-tarmac stretches.
The quiet north loop
Through Parlavà and around Ultramort, the route swings up to close its northern edge at Foixà, one of the highest grounds of the day, crowned by a 13th-century castle that was once the seat of its own barony. It's handsome and a little haunted: the lane below the castle passes the cross marking where King Joan I fell from his horse while hunting in 1396, an accident that killed him.
The run home
Out of Foixà there's a short stretch of road with a touch more gradient before Rupià, and then it's a near-straight run back through Corçà and La Bisbal d'Empordà, the comarca capital, to close the loop at Fonteta.
Riding it
El Bidonet rate this one for its roads as much as its villages: what tarmac there is runs village-to-village, the sort of lane a car uses twice an hour — exactly why they recommend it. Water is a non-issue; every village has a fountain, a shop or a bar, so travel light. Spring and autumn are the pick; in high summer, start early and let the villages do the shading.
Surface mix
Granular surface breakdowns (singletrack, mud, rock, etc.) live in Komoot — open the GPX there for the full picture.
Comments
Be the first to share notes
Drop some feedback or share a note if you’ve ridden it recently - surface shifts, trail closures, water points.
Become a Gritliner to leave notes on routes.
Sign up - free