Girona, also known in Spanish as Gerona, is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the population of the Girona–Salt urban area is estimated to be about 156,400 (2020). Girona is also capital of the comarca of the Gironès and the vegueria of Girona. Since much of the old quarter of this ancient city has been preserved, Girona is a popular tourist destination. The city is located 99 km (62 mi) northeast of Barcelona.
History
The first historical inhabitants in the region were Iberians; Girona is the ancient Gerunda, a city of the Ausetani. Later, the Romans built a citadel there, which was given the name of Gerunda. The Visigoths ruled in Girona until it was conquered by the Moors in 715. Charlemagne reconquered it in 785 and made it one of the fourteen original counties of Catalonia. It was sacked by the Moors in 827, 842, 845, 935, and 982. Wilfred the Hairy incorporated Girona into the County of Barcelona in 878.
In the 11th century, Alfonso II of Aragon and I of Barcelona declared Girona a city. The ancient county became a duchy within the Principality of Catalonia in 1351 when King Peter III of Aragon gave the title of Duke to his first-born son, John. In 1414, King Ferdinand I in turn gave the title of Prince of Girona to his first-born son, Alfonso. The title is currently carried by Princess Leonor of Asturias, the second since the 16th century to do so.
The earliest documented evidence of a Jewish Catalan community in Girona dates to about 885. The 12th century saw the Jewish community of Girona flourish, having one of the most important Kabbalistic schools in Europe. The Rabbi of Girona, Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi (better known as Nahmanides or Ramban) was appointed Great Rabbi of Catalonia. Centred on the Jewish Call (Call Jueu), the Jewish community of Girona came to an end in 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs outlawed Judaism throughout Spain and Jews were given the choice of conversion or exile (see Alhambra Decree). For 400 years before that time, the Jewish cemetery was located beside the road to France, just north of the old city between the mountain Montjuïc, or Jewish Mountain in medieval Catalan, and the river Ter.
Girona has undergone twenty-five sieges throughout its history. It was besieged by the French royal armies under Charles de Monchy d'Hocquincourt in 1653, under Bernardin Gigault de Bellefonds in 1684, and twice in 1694 under Anne Jules de Noailles. During the Third siege of Girona of the Peninsular War, the city was besieged from May to December 1809 by 35,000 French Napoleonic troops under Vergier, Augereau and Gouvion Saint-Cyr. Continuously under heavy bombardment, Girona held out obstinately under the leadership of Álvarez de Castro until disease and famine compelled it to capitulate on 12 December. Girona was the centre of the Ter department during the French rule, which lasted from 1809 to 1813. The defensive city walls of the western side were demolished at the turn of the 20th century to allow for the expansion of the city, while the walls of the eastern side remained untouched but abandoned.
Between 1983 and 2003, the missing parts of the city walls on the eastern side of the city were reconstructed. A walking route following the walls, known as el Passeig de la Muralla, is now a popular tourist route around the old city.
Geography
Girona was founded in a strategic location along a natural corridor between the Empordà plain and the Catalan Coastal Depression, thereby connecting the Costa Brava and France to the north with Barcelona and other population centres in the south of Catalonia. This corridor is a defile formed by the Ter river between the Gavarres massif and the Catalan Transversal Range.
The Ter river is the most important water course in the region. In Girona it flows through the north of the town, from southwest to northeast. It is in Girona where the Ter meets the Onyar, the second largest river in the area. The Onyar crosses the city from south to north and it has historically conditioned the city's development, as catastrophic floods have periodically affected the town since historic times.
Seismic activity
Girona is located in a seismic zone, which means it occasionally has earthquakes throughout the year. Most of them are not felt, and some are felt as a minor vibration or light shaking. The strongest earthquake recorded in Girona was the magnitude 6.7 Principality of Catalonia 1428 earthquake.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification, Girona has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), with hot summers and cool winters. In winter, frost occurs frequently (41.3 days per year from November to March), but snowfall is quite rare. Temperatures in winter can drop to below −2 °C (28 °F)/−3 °C (27 °F), especially during days with thermal inversion. Maximum temperatures in summer above 40 °C (104 °F) are very rare. Average annual rainfall is usually slightly above 700 mm (28 in). The wettest seasons are autumn (September–November) and spring (April–early June). Thunderstorms can occur throughout the year, more frequently in summer, averaging 23.9 days per year. but usually there still is a significant arid period. This can be seen through the natural vegetation around the city, as drought-tolerant oaks (Quercus ilex and, to a lesser extent, Quercus suber and Quercus pubescens) and pines (Pinus pinaster, Pinus pinea and Pinus halepensis) dominate the majority of plant communities.
Main sights
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 by Rafael Masó i Valentí.
Cathedral
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.