Empordà has been the cradle for many pictoric schools, with surrealism standing out, including artists such as Salvador Dalí, Angel Planells, Joan Massanet and Evarist Vallès.

There are a number of caves that served as a shelter for paleolithic men in the Montgrí Massif; the most famous ones share the same name: "Cau Del Duc", one in Torroella and the other in Ullà.

But with the arrival of the Romans, a process of transformation was initiated that changed the occupational system and the economic exploitation of the territory, which led to the abandonment of Ullastret in the 2nd century BC.

There are many traces of the Romanization, but it is hard to envision the print of the Visigoths and the Arabs, because the proximity of the Kingdom of the Franks caused the creation of independent counties ruled by feudal lords.

The first "drassanes" or shipyards where found in Empordà in the 10th century, as well as in Tortosa in 945, then ruled by Abd al-Rahman III.