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History
At the beginning of the 20th century, the beaches of the Costa Brava had not yet been discovered by the tourist industry and were reserved for the wealthy classes, who preferred to spend their holidays at spas such as Caldes de Malavella, Sant Hilari and Ribas de Freser. It was not until the First World War that middle-class families began to appreciate the enchantment of the beaches as places of rest and relaxation, initially in Tossa de Mar and S'Agaró.
In the creation and development of the S'Agaró luxury housing development a major role was played by Josep Ensesa Gubert, when, in August 1916, his father purchased a plot of 5000 square metres in the neighbourhood of Sant Pol in order to build a summer holiday house.
The initiative to build a luxury, select and private housing development with modern buildings seems to have come from Josep Ensesa Gubert, though the ideas materialized from conversations with the Art Nouveau architect Rafael Masó Valentí. They purchased the surrounding land in order to develop a more generous vision. Masó designed an ideal urban centre, a garden city that was reminiscent of the projects carried out in Great Britain between 1910 and 1920. According to the well-known Catalan poet, Josep Pla, it was a residential town that honours its name and, therefore, has a dimension of spiritual comfort, ordered, luxurious calm worthy of the greatest praise.
On 25 July 1924, the first chalet in the development was inaugurated.
To harmonize the new constructions, a series of conditions were drawn up that buyers had to accept when they acquired plots and that were included in the deeds of purchase. The conditions stipulate that all new building or modification of existing buildings shall be subject to the report of the development’s architect before beginning work; the architect shall rule on the exterior aspects of the proposed works or modifications, subordinated to the housing development in terms of S'Agaró, character, use of proper materials and construction forms and adequate resolution of any problems arising from the exterior composition of the project in all its details. Furthermore, it establishes that, in the event of subsequent sale of the plots, the same set of conditions shall be stated in the corresponding notarial deed and shall be accepted by the new owners.
In 1927, the development was given the name of the stream that flows out into the beach at Sant Pol, S'Agaró.
In 1932, Hostal de la Gavina was inaugurated; it was initially formed by two buildings situated diagonally at the end of a square and had only 11 rooms.
To complete the development, a church was built following the acquisition of the remains of the cloister of Sant Francesc de Girona. After many impediments by the monuments commission, transfer of the remains was authorized and the architect Rafael Masó was charged with ensuring that the construction was carried out with the appropriate guarantees in archaeological terms.
On 16 July 1942, the chapel was consecrated and was dedicated to Our Lady of Good Hope.
On 20 October 1933, Josep Ensesa contracted Felip Masó Ferragut and, with him, created a construction company to build the S'Agaró development.
Since then, the Felip Masó construction company was to build the S'Agaró housing development according to the guidelines successively established by the architects Rafael Masó and Ramon Folguera.
During the civil war, construction was halted on the housing development and the hotel was occupied and collectivized. After the war, the development was restarted and the necessary reforms were carried out.
To spice up the social life of the development and to create tourist attractions, shortly afterwards, all kinds of cultural and sporting events began to be organized, including international tennis championships, society balls at the swimming pool and rooms of Hostal de la Gavina, fashion shows, horse riding competitions, etc.
Of particular note is the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of S'Agaró with a big society party. The success of the promotion was impressive, with attendance by politicians and the Minister of the Spanish Government, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, the President of the 4th French Republic, Vincent Auriol, the actors and actresses, Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Peter Sellers, John Wayne, Liz Taylor and Sir Lawrence Olivier; the musicians, Xavier Cugat, Xavier Monsalvantge, Frederic Mompou and Narciso Yepes; the film director, Orson Welles, and many other personalities and artists such as Begum Aga Khan, Gala and Dalí, Mario Cabré, Luis Miguel Dominguín and Lucia Bosé.
Subsequently, S'Agaró it also became the scene of films such as "Treasure Island", "Some Girls Do", "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman", "Mr. Arkadin", "Nicholas and Alexandra", "The Thrill About Springs", "Suddenly Last Summer" and even some scenes from James Bond. Recently, scenes from the film "The Sea Inside" were filmed here, as well as many commercial advertisements.