TOP FLIGHT
English Summar y
Number 07 /116/ July 2019
Girona
FLORAL
MIDDLE AGES
T
This small but charming city
was besieged 25 times during
its history but surprising-
ly preserved its historical ap-
pearance; and nowadays we
can contemplate the frag-
ments of the fortress walls
built during the times of Ibe-
rians. There was the city of
Gerunda during the Roman
Empire which was later cap-
tured by the Visigoths first,
then by the Moors, and then
by the Franks — and it was the
king of the Franks Charles the
Great who made Girona one
of the fourteen of the origi-
nal counties of Catalonia. Fa-
vorable geographical loca-
tion provided Girona to be
well known as one of the most
prosperous cities in the West-
ern Mediterranean already
in the 14th-16th centuries,
and was taken by Spain and
France during the next two
hundred years. The western
part of the fortress was de-
molished in the 19th century,
and from then on the develop-
ment of the city really took off.
Thanks to the well-preserved
medieval center, the tourist
boom began in Girona in the
80s of the last century. After a
while, the decision was made
to restore the fortress wall —
it’s a popular tourist destina-
tion nowadays.
The main attraction of the
city is the ancient Girona Ca-
thedral which was rebuilt in-
to a mosque under the Moors,
and when they had been ex-
pelled in the 14th century, it
was restored in the best tra-
ditions of Catalonian Gothic
according to the project Jau-
me Fabre, an architect of Ma-
jorca. You can see wonder-
ful silver guilt items by Pere
Berneck, a Valencian mas-
ter, displayed inside. Anoth-
er remarkable Gothic church
is the Collegiate Church of St.
Felix erected in the 14th cen-
tury, and a baroque facade
was complemented four cen-
turies later.
The Jewish heritage is al-
so of interest - before the Al-
hambra Decree, an edict is-
sued in 1492, according to
which those who did not wish
to accept Christianity were
expelled from the Kingdoms
of Castile and Aragon, one of
the largest Jewish commu-
nities in Europe lived over
there. You can see a rectan-
gular recess for the mezuza,
a rolled parchment with in-
scribed verses of Shema con-
fession on the facade of one
of the buildings located on
Carrer de Sant Llorenc. The
Museum of Jewish history
which reflects the history of
Jewish communities of Cat-
alonia. You should definite-
ly walk along the river On-
yar which splits the city into
two parts and is decorated
with many interesting his-
torical bridges, including the
Eiffel Bridge built before the
erection of the Parisien tow-
er which brought worldwide
fame to the architect. There
are interesting buildings on
the embankments in Art Nou-
veau and Catalonian Nou-