Girona ciutat

A walk through Girona, the city located 100 km north of Barcelona, traces the history of Catalonia. Its historic centre, known as the Call Jueu, preserves Roman, Romanesque, Jewish, Gothic and Baroque walls, squares, buildings and churches. The famous 19th-century painted houses line the river Onyar.

Girona is a city you can explore on foot. The city walls, which were built during the Carolingian (9th century) and medieval (14th-15th centuries) period, provide an aerial view of the historic centre, the "Barri Vell". As you wander through the steep narrow streets of the Jewish quarter, "el Call Jueu", one of the best-preserved in Europe, you'll be transported back to the middle ages. The centre Bonastruc ça Porta, housed in the 15th- century synagogue, recounts the history of the community that lived here from the 9th to the 15th centuries. The highest part of Girona is the site of the Cathedral, built in the Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque styles (11th-17th centuries): its gothic nave is the widest in world (23 m). Nearby, the 12th-century church of Sant Nicolau and the monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants are two of the finest examples of the lombard-romanesque style in Catalonia. As you leave the "Barri Vell", across Eiffel's iron bridge that spans the river Onyar, you can see the brightly coloured painted houses that date from the 19th century. However, to soak up the atmosphere of the contemporary Girona, there's nothing better than a stroll along the Rambla de la Llibertat.

Figueres and the Costa Brava are very near Girona.