SANTA ROSA CHURCH AND WINE PRESS

 

The village of Llafranc was built on top of a Roman site which was active between the 2nd centuries BC and AD. Houses, tombs and remains linked to the production of ceramics and the wine trade have been discovered here.

 

In Coral road, the discovery was made of the remains of two presses, possibly used for winemaking, and four rooms paved with opus signinum on top of the bedrock.

 

In one of these rooms, there is a large, stone block, which was used to support two vertical trunks, which in turn supported the press, operated using a counterweight and a system of ropes. It was part of a whole system that began at the top of a mound, which took advantage of the slope to channel the liquids through pipes to containers located at the lower levels. At the end of the 19th century, two rectangular recipients were still visible in the space that is now occupied by the Santa Rosa church.

 

Llafranc’s church was built in 1896 and then later extended in 1958. According to Josep Pla, it was dedicated to Santa Rosa of Lima because of a woman named Rosita who used to spend her summers in Llafranc. Inside the church, paintings by Guillem Soler i Gatvillaró (1905-1971), representing scenes from Santa Rosa’s life, have been preserved.