View from St. John´s castle (Castell de Sant Joan)
It is possible that human life has existed in the area currently known as Blanes since prehistoric times. In fact the earliest clear indications we have of the settlement of our lands are of the pre-Roman Iberian society. Several classical authors make reference to the presence of such peoples prior to the third century BC, situating them geographically somewhere between Empuries and Barcelona, along the banks of the Larnum River.With the Romanizing of the land, after 218 BC, the settlement came to be known as Blanda or Blandae, the Roman form of the indigenous toponym. The use of the plural could indicate the existence of several settlements. Archaeological excavations place the settlement in the area of "la Penya dels Padrets", where several houses, dating to the first century BC and inhabited up to the middle of the first century AD, have been unearthed.Latin documents have been found which also refer to it as a town -a walled place- and as a colony ruled by Roman Law.