Main sights
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See also: Category:Museums in Girona
Girona is a popular destination for tourists and day-trippers from Barcelona. The old town stands on the steep hill of the Caputxins to the east of the river Onyar, while the more modern section stands on the plains to the west. The city has a number of Art Nouveau buildings including the Farinera Teixidor [es] by Rafael Masó i Valentí.
Cathedral[edit]
Girona cathedral during the annual flower exhibition
The ancient cathedral, which stood on the site of the present one, was used by the Moors as a mosque, and after their final expulsion was either entirely remodelled or rebuilt. The existing structure is one of the most important monuments of the school of the Majorcan architect Jaume Fabre and an excellent example of Catalan Gothic architecture. It is approached in ninety steps. An aisle and chapels surround the choir, which opens by three arches into the nave, of which the pointed stone vault is the second widest in the world (22.98 m), second only to that of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Among its interior decorations is the 14th century altarpiece which is the work of Valencian silversmith Pere Berneç. It is divided into three tiers of statuettes and reliefs, framed in canopied niches of cast and hammered silver. A gold and silver altar-frontal was carried off by the French in 1809. The cathedral contains the tombs of Ramon Berenguer and his wife.
Old fortifications[edit]
The old fortifications are another popular sight. Historically, these played a vital role in protecting Girona from invaders for hundreds of years. The city wall of the old town was an important military construction built in Roman times in the 1st century BC. It was thoroughly rebuilt under the reign of Peter III the Ceremonious in the second half of the 14th century, with the Roman wall used as a foundation. At the start of the 16th century, the wall was absorbed into the city and the walled precinct lost its military value. Bit by bit, the wall was degrading, as parts were gradually altered from the inside and the outside, until the walls were almost entirely demolished at the beginning of the 20th century. The remaining walls and lookout towers that make up these fortifications are today split in two – a small section to the north of the old town, and a much larger section to the east and south which was reconstructed in the period 1983–2003. It is now possible to walk the walls and climb the towers, from which visitors can enjoy panoramic views of Girona and the surrounding countryside.
Sant Feliu[edit]
The Collegiate Church of Sant Feliu, as seen from the river Onyar
The Collegiate Church of Sant Feliu is noteworthy from an architectural point of view. Its principal style is 14th-century Gothic, although the façade dates from the 18th, and it is one of the few Spanish churches that possesses a genuine spire. It contains, besides the sepulchre of its patron and the tomb of the valiant Álvarez, a chapel dedicated to St. Narcissus, who according to tradition was one of the early bishops of the See of Girona.
Sant Pere de Galligants[edit]
Sant Pere de Galligants
The Benedictine church of the monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants is in the early Romanesque style, dating to about the year 1130, though the monastery dates to about 950. The monastery slightly predates the Monastery of St. Daniel.
Plaça de la Independència[edit]
The Independence Square monument honors the city's defenders during the sieges of 1808 and 1809.
The Plaça de la Independència is one of the best-known and busiest squares in Girona. Located in the Mercadal district in the city centre, it is also known as Plaça de Sant Agustí, after the former Convent of Sant Agustí. Its name refers to the 1808–1814 War of Spanish Independence, part of the larger Peninsular War, against Napoleon Bonaparte.
The interest of the square lies in its 19th-century style, despite it being surrounded by identical austere neoclassical buildings with porches dedicated to the defenders of the city of Girona during the 1808 and 1809 sieges.
However, the symmetrical proportions of the square correspond more to contemporary interventions than its architectural past. The municipal architect Martí Sureda i Deulovol was the first to conceive a porticoed square with closed and neoclassical loops, and with some buildings having matching aesthetic proportions. The development of the area followed this scheme only in part, as the construction of the first theatres in the city did not follow the original concept of Martí Sureda. The surrounding part of the city is primarily constructed in the Noucentisme architectural style of the early 20th century, and the area is now a lively social and commercial hub with an abundance of cafés and restaurants, including some well-known historic establishments like the Café Royal, Cinema Albéniz and Casa Marieta.
Cases de l'Onyar[edit]
Houses on the river Onyar
The picturesque houses overlooking the river Onyar are seen as an iconic image of Girona, but their current appearance is relatively recent. The houses were built over many years from the 17th to 20th century, although most date to the 19th century and were not originally seen with the multicoloured appearance of today. The façades were painted and restored in a palette of 29 colours, an idea conceived during the later years of the Franco dictatorship by local artists Enric Ansesa and James J. Faixó and ultimately realized in 1982. Ansesa has since related the symbolism of the colours as a "great signal of change" following the end of Francoism, contrasting this with the city of his youth which he described as a "Girona in black and white, a city of grief and funerals, of the religious fundamentalism of the first Fridays of the month”.
One of these houses (at Ballesteries 29, Girona) is Casa Masó, the birthplace of the architect Rafael Masó i Valentí and an example of Noucentisme in Girona. Since 2006 it has been the headquarters of the Fundació Rafael Masó. The façade abutting the river can be recognised by its unique white color.
Jewish heritage[edit]
A lane in the Jewish Quarter. Girona's Jewish community was lost as a result of the Expulsion.
The historic Jewish quarter or Call has been the centre of archaeological and restoration work in recent decades. In 1492, at the culmination of a period of increasing repression, the remaining Jewish community in Girona was forced to choose between conversion and expulsion. After the expulsion of the Jews, the neighbourhood was sealed off and new houses were built over the old ones. When the dictator Francisco Franco died in November 1975, interest in the region's cultural history was revived. Some of the old buildings were excavated leading to the discovery of the home of Nahmanides, which was sold to the city in 1987.
A rectangular indentation that once held a mezuzah can be seen at the entrance of a number of buildings in the Call, such as the doorway of an old building on Carrer de Sant Llorenç. The Centre Bonastruc ça Porta on Carrer de la Força is the site of a 15th century synagogue, and the building today hosts the Girona Museum of Jewish History and the Nahmanides Institute for Jewish Studies. Excavations in the early 2000s also turned up 1,200 old documents, including Talmudic commentaries, accounts of Jewish domestic life, a description of the ancient synagogue and the names of Girona Jews who converted to Christianity in 1492.
