Historic Cities · Spain
Girona through the ages
Girona, historically also known 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 in 1350
City of the Call
Girona in 1350 sits crowded on its rocky hill above the Onyar, a fortified Catalan town where cathedral masters argue the shape of the nave and the Jewish Call is a centre of study. This walk follows the old approaches, gates, river fords and stepped alleys from the Lowland markets to the ramparts, where the city opens to the rivers and fields beyond.
Stone towers and tile roofs cluster on a steep spur above the Onyar and the Ter; Romanesque churches sit beside rising Gothic buttresses and unfinished walls of the cathedral. Streets are narrow, shaded and often stepped, flanked by rough-hewn stone and timber jetties over the river; riverbanks host tannery pits and open vats for dyeing. Ramparts and watchtowers frame the skyline, sunlight low and cool in spring or autumn, with mist in the river hollows at dawn.
The route: 16 streets, squares and views
Montjuïc → Pont de Sant Francesc → Portal de Sant Feliu → Sant Feliu → Plaça del Vi → Cathedral of Santa Maria → Carrer de la Força → Centre Bonastruc ça Porta → Carrer de Sant Llorenç → Mercadal Square → …
Step inside, 8 interiors
Nave with Roman Sarcophagi · Cloister of Carved Capitals · Great Gothic Nave · Study House of the Call · Mercadal Market Hall · Riverside Dyer's Workshop · Romanesque Cloister · Octagonal Pool Chamber
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Girona.
From the archive
Girona on paper: the old town as it was mapped.
A period plan or bird's-eye view of the old town, drawn between 1500 and 1850 — the streets this page's reconstructions walk. Public domain, with its source named.
Girone (Girona), ville forte d'Espagne — plan from Les Forces de l'Europe
Walled old town with bastioned ramparts, the River Ter and bridge, outlying star forts and siege works shown around Girona.
1694 · Rijksmuseum · Wikimedia Commons
CC0 (plate dated 1694)
Castles of Girona
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