Cap de Creus — the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula

Cap de Creus — the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula

Cap de Creus (cat. Cap de Creus) – a cape on the coast of Alt Emporda (Catalonia, Spain), located at the northern tip of the Costa Brava, at the end of a small peninsula that enters the Mediterranean Sea and divides the Gulf of Roses in the south from the Gulf of Lion in the north.

Cap de Creus is the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula. The Cape area belongs to the municipality of Cadaques and is part of the Cap de Creus Natural Park. The area also known as the Devil’s Head. The northern and southern sectors of the sea, which are divided by the “head”, known as the Upper and Lower Sea, respectively. There is a lighthouse on the promontory, built on the foundations of a Roman signal tower, which also served as a watchtower in the late Middle Ages.

The Creus cape (cat. Cap de Creus) is a steep and rocky promontory with a height of 672 m, which rises above the Mediterranean Sea, forming a small mountain peninsula, cut by numerous notches in the form of small bays, oriented along the structure of shale. From a geological and morphological point of view, it is part of the foothills of the eastern Pyrenees, cut into the sea by the Cap de Creus massif.

It is influenced by waves caused mainly by the northerly wind – this is the name of the cold tramontana wind blowing from the north and northwest, as well as easterly winds, with 500 to 800 mm of precipitations annually; Thus, it is a humid Mediterranean climate characterized by mildness and moderate rainfall.

Shrub vegetation prevails here.

The Cap de Creus peninsula, whose geological age exceeds 450 million years and which has been considered a specially protected natural area since 1984, has the status of a natural park.

Among the largest municipalities located on the peninsula: El Port de la Selva, Llança, Cadaques, Roses. It forms an extremely steep, deeply watered coast with numerous islets, very high cliffs, rocky outcrops of erosion and wind, meadows and forests inland, and hidden coves of clear water, accessible only from the sea.

As the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula, it is an important destination for migratory birds.

Particularly noteworthy is the uniqueness of some rocks associated with animal forms that eventually became mythical; these are the Pla de Tudela eagle and Cap Gros the lion, or the eagle on the rock of the island of Cullero.

Currently, the territory of the peninsula park is especially popular among hikers who find routes of any degree of difficulty there.

Sant Pere de Rodes monastery stands out at 500 metres of altitude, with views of the Cap and the Pyrenees. It is an 11th-century monastery whose first structures date from about 750 AD.

Read more: Interesting places in the Pyrenees and around with Jane Cautch ...