Page 219 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

C A T AL ONIA  217

The medieval town of Besalú on the banks of the Riu Fluvià
0 Sant Joan de Environs w Besalú
les Abadesses To the north is Camprodon, a Girona. * 2,400. @ n Carrer del
small town full of grand houses,
Girona. * 3,600. @ n Plaça de and shops selling local produce. Pont 1, 972 59 12 40. ( Tue. _ Sant
l’Abadía 9, 972 72 05 99. ( Sun. The region is especially noted Vicenç (22 Jan), Festa Major (last
_ Festa Major (second Sun of Sep). weekend of Sep). 8 ∑ besalu.cat
∑ santjoandelesabadesses.cat for its embutits (charcuterie).
A magnificent medieval town,
A fine, 12th-century Gothic with a striking approach across
bridge arches over the Riu Ter q Olot a fortified bridge over the Riu
to this unassuming market Girona. * 34,000. @ n Carrer Fluvià, Besalú has two fine
town, whose main attraction Francesc Fàbregas 6, 972 26 01 41. ( churches. These are the
is its monastery. Mon. _ Corpus Christi (Jun), Festa Romanesque Sant Vicenç and
Founded in AD 885, it was del Tura (8 Sep). ∑ turismeolot.com Sant Pere, the sole remnant of
a gift from Guifré, first count Besalú’s Benedictine mon astery.
of Barcelona, to his daughter, This small market town is It was founded in AD 948, but
the first abbess. The church at the centre of a landscape pulled down in 1835.
is una dorned except for a pockmarked with the conical In 1964 a mikvah, a ritual
superb wood en calvary, The hills of extinct volcanoes. But Jewish bath, was discovered.
Descent from the Cross. Made it was an earthquake in 1474 It was built in 1264 and is one
in 1150, it looks modern; part which last disturbed the town, of only three of that period to
of it, a thief, was burned in the destroying its medieval past. survive in Europe. The tourist
Civil War and replaced with During the 18th century the office organizes guided visits
such skill that it is hard to tell town’s textile industry spawn ed to all the town’s attractions.
which is new. The monas tery’s the “Olot School” of art: finished To the south, the sky-blue lake
museum has Baroque and cotton fabrics were printed with of Banyoles, where the 1992
Renaissance altarpieces. drawings, and in 1783 the Public Olympic rowing contests
School of Drawing was founded. were held, is ideal for picnics.
Much of the school’s work,
which includes sculpted saints
and paintings such as Joaquim
Vayreda’s Les Falgueres, is in
the Museu Comarcal de
la Garrotxa, housed in an
18th-century hospice. There
are also pieces by Modernista
sculptor Miquel Blay, whose
damsels support the balcony
at No. 38 Passeig Miquel Blay.
E Museu Comarcal de la Garrotxa
12th-century calvary, Sant Joan de les Carrer Hospici 8. Tel 972 27 11 66. Sausage shop in the mountain town
Abadesses monastery Closed for renovation. & 7 of Camprodon

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