This convent is the second settlement of the community of Carmelite monks in Peralada. It was built around the mid-14th century on a site between the town wall and the Jewish quarter, with which it was connected, regulating, in a way, the access and closing at night of the quarter, which would open after the ringing of the Carmelite bell.
The monastery was affected by the seizure and sale of land ordered by Mendizábal in 1835, but shortly afterwards it was returned to the ownership of the Counts of Peralada, who incorporated it into the castle through the construction of a neo-classical bridge over the road, and turned it into a cultural centre, with a free school for the children of the town. This centre was the birthplace of “La Principal de Peralada” a sardana cobla (traditional Catalan folk dance orchestra) considered one of the best of its day.
Particularly outstanding elements of the Convent del Carme include its Gothic cloister and 14th-century Church, also Gothic, with an exceptional painted wood ceiling. Today it is the centre of the Peralada Castle museum complex, which includes the Museu del Vidre (glass museum), with one of the most important private collections of glass in the world; the Library, with more than 80,000 volumes, 200 incunables and an extraordinary collection of more than 1,000 copies of El Quijote; and the Museu del Vi (wine museum).
