Catalonia's best-preserved medieval town — the 11th-century Romanesque fortified bridge over the Fluvià, the Jewish mikveh, and the Garrotxa volcanic landscape 10km away
Besalú is a small medieval town in the Garrotxa comarca of Girona province (Catalonia) — at 147m in the Fluvià River valley, 35km from Girona and 125km from Barcelona. Besalú is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Catalonia: the fortified Romanesque bridge (Pont Fortificat, 11th century, later reconstructed) over the Riu Fluvià — with two defensive towers and a chicane gate forcing medieval travellers to enter at a 90-degree angle — is the most photographed bridge in Catalonia outside Barcelona. The medieval core (the Sant Pere Monastery, the Cúria-Presó, the Jewish quarter with its 1…
Besalú was the capital of the independent County of Besalú from the 10th to the early 12th century, when it was incorporated into the County of Barcelona. The Jewish community (established by the 10th century, one of the oldest Sephardic communities in Catalonia) maintained a significant presence in the town through the 12th and 13th centuries — the mikveh (ritual bath) discovered under Besalú in 1964 is one of only three surviving medieval mikvehs in all of Spain and is the best preserved. The Romanesque Sant Pere Monastery (founded 977 CE) was a Benedictine foundation that served as the cou…