Catalonia's medieval jewel — ancient walls, a Jewish quarter intact since the 10th century, and the most celebrated restaurant in the world
Girona (population 103,000, capital of Girona Province) is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe — the old town sits on a fortified ridge above the Onyar River, its multicoloured houses reflected in the water, with Roman walls, a Romanesque cathedral, and one of the most intact Jewish quarters in the Iberian Peninsula. The city is 40 minutes from Barcelona by high-speed train and regularly bypassed by visitors who don't know what they're missing: the Call (the Jewish quarter, populated from the 9th century to 1492), the cathedral's single nave (the widest Gothic nave in the worl…
Girona (Roman Gerunda) was founded as a Roman colony in the 1st century BCE, became the Visigothic capital of Septimania in the 5th century, was held by the Moors from 714 to 785, and reconquered by Charlemagne who made it a Frankish march. The Jewish community arrived before the 10th century and developed the Call (the Jewish quarter) into one of the most intellectually significant Jewish communities in medieval Europe — the Girona Kabbalistic school was one of the most important centres of Jewish mystical thought in the 13th century, producing Rabbi Nachmanides (Ramban, 1194–1270), who is c…