Girona Cathedral

Step inside Girona Cathedral and the space opens into a single Gothic nave nearly 23 m wide, with no columns at all between its walls. It is the widest Gothic nave in the world, and among all churches only St Peter's in Rome has a broader one; by comparison, the nave of Reims is under 15 m and that of Notre-Dame in Paris about 12 m. The vault rises some 35 m above the floor. Outside, a broad Baroque staircase climbs to a Baroque facade, so that the medieval church presents itself to the old town as a theatrical set piece.

A Christian church stood on the site before the Islamic conquest; it was used as a mosque from 717 and, after the Franks took Girona in 785, was rededicated as a church in 908. In the early 11th century Bishop Peter Roger rebuilt it in Romanesque style, and of that building two parts still stand: the bell tower known as Charlemagne's Tower, with six storeys separated by Lombard bands, and a 12th-century cloister whose capitals swarm with fantastic beasts, plant forms and scenes from the New Testament; the sculptor Arnau Cadell, who also worked at Sant Cugat, was among those who carved it. The Gothic rebuilding began with a plan by Pere Sacoma in 1312. After years of debate, Guillem Bofill and Antoni Canet started the immense nave in 1416. The facade was begun in 1606 and its upper part finished only in 1961, while the staircase was completed in 1607. On the south side, the 14th-century Portal of the Apostles once held twelve figures by Antoni Claperós, of which only Peter and Paul survive.

The interior holds a white marble high altar of the 11th century, the Gothic tomb of Bishop Berenguer d'Anglesola by Pere Oller, and the 14th-century tombs of Countess Ermessenda and Count Ramon Berenguer II by Guillem Morell. The treasury keeps the Tapestry of Creation, an embroidered hanging of the 11th or early 12th century and one of the great works of Romanesque textile art, along with the 10th-century illuminated Girona Beatus and a carved casket made for the Caliph al-Hakam II of Córdoba. Girona, a Catalan city on the river Onyar near the Costa Brava, has a walled medieval quarter rising from the river, and the cathedral stands above it. The building and its steps were also used as a location for the television series Game of Thrones, standing in for the Great Sept.

Getting there

The cathedral is in the old quarter of Girona, on the east bank of the Onyar. Girona station lies on the high-speed line between Barcelona and France. Girona–Costa Brava Airport (GRO) is about 11 km to the southwest in a straight line.