Esperit Roca – the Roca brothers' fortress above Girona

Esperit Roca occupies a restored 19th-century fortress on the Sants Metges mountain above Sant Julià de Ramis, reached along a country lane lined with cork oak trees a short drive north of Girona. It is the newest and most ambitious project of Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca, the trio behind El Celler de Can Roca, whose 45-seat dining room has twice been named the world's best restaurant and carries a waiting list running past 100,000 names. Behind the fortress's thick stone walls they have assembled a 15-room hotel, two restaurants, an 80,000-bottle wine cellar, a working distillery and an exhibition space tracing their creative process. The MICHELIN Guide recognises the hotel with Two MICHELIN Keys, its distinction for a stay of real character and craft. Opened in the summer of 2024, Esperit Roca turned a hilltop military outpost into the most complete expression yet of the Roca family's hospitality around their home city.

01The house

The building began life as a 19th-century military fortress, its brutalist bones softened by the natural materials the Rocas favour throughout the Esperit Roca project. Guests arrive through gates that slide open onto the hilltop grounds, a sequence that feels closer to entering a private estate than checking into a hotel. Roche Bobois was commissioned to furnish the reception area, and the resulting lobby looks out over a sweeping panorama of the city below.

Inside, the aesthetic is consistent with the Rocas' other Girona addresses: interiors kept modern and light-filled, oriented outward toward the Empordà rather than inward toward decoration. The effect is of a building that treats its setting, 360 degrees of hills and plain beneath a fortress silhouette, as the real decoration.

02Rooms and suites

There are 15 rooms in total, arranged across four categories. The Junior Suite Empordà runs to 40 or 62 square metres with a private terrace facing the plain; the Junior Suite Mountain, at 43 square metres, looks instead toward the hills. A two-level Junior Suite Duplex Empordà overlooks the hotel's gardens and pool from its upper floor, while the Junior Suite with Private Garden adds a 15-square-metre private terrace intended for watching the sunset.

Insider tip

Reached by car via the AP7 north exit; heliport on site for guests.

Throughout, rooms are finished in hardwood flooring and cork ceilings, with raffia rugs and linen-upholstered furniture against expansive picture windows. Bathrooms are built generously around freestanding soaking tubs angled toward the landscape; one suite has its own garden, and the duplex keeps a quiet balcony off the upper sleeping level.

03Where to eat

Gastronomy sits at the centre of the project. The in-house Esperit Roca restaurant reworks iconic dishes from El Celler de Can Roca into a more accessible format, including a tasting menu built around the spinning-globe dessert and multi-course chocolate repertoire that made pastry chef Jordi Roca's reputation. A second restaurant, Fontané, serves traditional Catalan home cooking with what the house describes as an honest, noble cuisine carrying a touch of sophistication.

Breakfast is served as a buffet with views over the Empordà, built on quality, local sourcing and artisanal preparation; later in the day, a dessert-centric tasting menu offers a departure from a standard dinner service.

04The cellar and the distillery

At the centre of the castle stands a cellar holding some 80,000 bottles, where classical music is said to play around the clock at the insistence of sommelier Josep Roca. Visitors can buy glasses made from the cellar's own recycled bottles in the adjoining shop. Downhill from the hotel, on the way into town, sits the Roca-branded distillery devoted to the liquid side of El Celler's cuisine, alongside the CCR exhibition, a visual record of the restaurant's creative process over the decades.

05Spa and wellbeing

The wellness area is built around three elements: a fully equipped gym, a spa circuit designed for reconnecting with calm, and a treatment menu delivered by Natura Bissé. Outside, an L-shaped swimming pool sits within gardens that face the Empordà, with wide terraces making the most of the fortress's hilltop position and its 360-degree views.

06The neighbourhood

Esperit Roca sits within the Roca family's wider Girona network, a portfolio that also includes El Celler de Can Roca itself, the boutique Casa Cacao hotel that opened in 2020, the bistrot Normal, the natural-wine bar VII, Jordi Roca's ice cream shop Rocambolesc and the sandwich laboratory La Bikineria. The historic centre of Girona, with its cathedral steps and river-front houses, lies a short drive south, while the Costa Brava coastline is within easy reach for a day out.

07Making the most of a stay

The hotel is reached by car via the AP7's north exit toward Girona, with valet and parking available on site; there is also a heliport for guests arriving by private helicopter. The nearest train and bus station is Girona, at Plaça d'Espanya, with taxis available at the gates, and the closest airports are Girona-Costa Brava and Barcelona-El Prat. Given the Roca name and the scale of demand that already surrounds El Celler de Can Roca, booking tables at the on-site restaurants well ahead of a stay is the sensible approach.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.