I did not keep the promise I had made at the end of my last Girona photo-essay. A full-day exploration of the city’s various points of interest did not make the cut in the final plans of our recent Costa Brava stay. A dinner and a late afternoon stroll was all we could manage. Some of the photographs from that stroll turned out nearly identical copies of the ones taken last year, but here is a small selection nonetheless.
First, the obligatory iconic view of the riverbanks and the cathedral above from Pont de les Peixateries Velles.
There is no visitor to Girona who can refrain from photographing this perspective over and over again. I am sure I will continue to do likewise on future visits.
A longer-distance perspective of the cathedral, from Pont de Pedra.
The next shot is also from Pont de Pedra, looking in a different direction towards the towers of Templo Expiatorio Del Sagrado Corazón.
The steps of Pujada de la Catedral.
View of the cathedral from the plaza at the foot of its main stairway.
Another river Onyar view, this time from Pont de Sant Agustí.
Pont de Sant Agustí connects the historic medieval center with the neoclassical Plaça de la Independècia. The monument to the defenders of the city of Girona, who held the city against Napoleonic troops for 7 months in 1809, is at the center of the square.
From a corner of Plaça de la Independècia, here is yet another perspective of the Girona cathedral.
Love locks these days are found on all popular river crossings. The design of the Pont de les Peixateries Velles leaves few opportunities for this expression of the two hearts joined together, but determined lovers use what space they can find.
At the edge of the town center, the side of a grungy industrial-looking building is decorated with a crocodile sporting butterfly wings. It is called la Cocollona.
Legend has it that members of a nunnery on a bank of Onyar locked away a pious novice because she was criticizing their sinful ways. Years of confinement in a subterranean cell turned her into a crocodile (cocodril in Catalan). But her purity of soul softened her ghastly appearance with the wings of a butterfly (papallona). Every full moon, Cocollona’s spirit returns to the Onyar, but only those with sensitive souls can see her swimming in the river.
The Gironan pride of a passerby who saw me snap the photo and decided to educate me on the spot about the creature was clear for all to see. I love it when locals spontaneously stop to talk about something they consider a matter of native ownership, even if it is a fairly silly myth.
These and other pictures of Girona can be found in my recent Catalonia Flickr album.