El Collet is a low hill located in front of the sea and to the north of Palamós Bay. The area’s current layout is very different from how it was in the past. In ancient times, this small elevation, today cut through by the road from Sant Feliu to Palamós, extended into the sea. During the Roman period, a villa was built on its summit, the Collet villa, and a few hundred metres to the northeast, beside the beach, a pottery workshop was built, the Collet East kiln site. Once the pottery workshop was abandoned, the space was used as a cemetery.
The first reports documenting remains from the Roman period at El Collet date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the first archaeological work was not carried out until a century later, at the beginning of this century. At that time, El Collet was the subject of several excavations that made it possible to locate remains linked to the Roman villa, and the pottery workshop and the necropolis of Collet East were also excavated.
The latest archaeological excavation campaign at El Collet in Sant Antoni de Calonge has now come to an end. These works, carried out during the months of December and January, are part of the Generalitat’s four-year project “The Roman villa of El Collet (Calonge i Sant Antoni) and its fundus”.
A large work and storage area from the Republican phase, dated to the 1st century BC, has been recovered. Among the elements found, numerous postholes, sockets for placing large ceramic containers, crucibles, and possible square-plan storage features stand out.
During the excavation, archaeological work was also carried out at the southeastern edge of the Civil War trench, where a large concrete slab associated with several circular holes has been documented. Although the remains are still under study, they were probably used to install some type of firearm intended to protect the access to Palamós.
Conservation and restoration work has also been carried out on some Roman structures.