This was the first parish church of the town of Lloret. Located 2.5 km. from the centre of town, it was the parish church from its consecration in the year 1079 until the year 1522. It has a Romanesque bell tower and frescoes by Calandria.

In Lloret, legend has it that the sea covered the entire plain up to the place called Les Alegries. The land on which the temple was built and for the corresponding cemetery some thirty steps away - thence the name La Sagrera by which the neighbourhood was known, was donated by Sicarda, the lady of Lloret Castle and municipality, widow of the nobleman Humbert de Ses Agudes. On 8 January, 1079, Señora Sicarda attended the consecration of the church performed by bishop Berenguer Vifred along with her children, one of whom, Bernat Humbert, would be the next bishop of the diocese (1093-1111), killed in an expedition to Palestine. It is on record that the hermitage was also formerly known as Nostra Senyora de Palos or Palou. Perhaps this was due to a poor interpretation of Nostra Senyora de l'Alou, referring to the common land (alou) donated by Madonna Sicarda.

When the new parish of Sant Romà was built by the sea, the former small, rural church became known as the "old church" or the "old Virgin". It later became the hermitage of the Mare de Déu de Les Alegries (Our Lady of Joy). The hermitage has Romanesque construction features, although modern reforms following the Civil War disfigured it, especially the bell tower to which a floor of arcades was added and finished off with imitation Lombard arches of cement and an inappropriate roof of varnished coloured tiles. The main statue is a clothed, articulated virgin of no artistic value.