Village
Besalú, in the Garrotxa comarca, province of Girona, is the former capital of an independent medieval county and has 2,592 inhabitants (INE 2025). Founded around the castle documented since the 10th century, it was raised to county capital after the death of Wifredo el Velloso in the year 902, under its first independent count, Miró I el Joven, and lost that status in 1111 on passing to the house of Barcelona. Its layout preserves with notable coherence the medieval urban structure, with the fortified bridge over the Fluvià, the Jewish baths, the church of the monastery of Sant Pere and the Cornellà house, which earned it in 1966 the declaration of national historic-artistic site, one of the most singular examples in Catalonia.
Monument
Medieval historic ensemble of Besalú, which was the capital of an independent county from approximately the year 902 until 1111, when it passed to the House of Barcelona. It was declared a national historic-artistic ensemble in 1966. It brings together buildings such as the Romanesque bridge, the Jewish baths, the monastery of Sant Pere, the church of Sant Julià, a former pilgrims' hospital, the church of Sant Vicenç, and the Gothic hall of the Cúria Reial palace. Its value comes above all from the unity of the ensemble, one of the most important examples of medieval settlements in Catalonia.
Monument
Fortified medieval bridge over the river Fluvià, the best-known symbol and image of Besalú (Garrotxa, Girona). The first documentary record dates from 1075. It has an angular layout and Romanesque construction, with seven unequal stone arches. Above the fifth pier stands a fortified tower with a hexagonal floor plan, with superimposed round arches and, at the top, a pointed arch with arrow slits. It suffered numerous damages from floods between the 14th and 18th centuries; in 1880 the central tower and the access gate from the village were demolished to allow the passage of machinery, and in 1939, during the Civil War, two of its arches were blown up.
Monument
Sant Pere de Besalú is a monastery in the historic centre of Besalú (Girona), declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1931. Of the former Benedictine monastery only the church remains, with a basilical plan of three naves separated by square pillars, a transept, and a large central apse surrounded by an ambulatory with capitals carved with plant motifs and human figures, of North Italian influence. It was founded in 977 by the Count of Besalú and Bishop of Girona Miró Bonfill, and its church was consecrated in 1003; the present building is a rebuilding from 1060. It experienced its greatest expansion in the 12th and 13th centuries, when it became part of the county of Barcelona, and went into decline in the 15th century due to the Remença war, earthquakes, and lawsuits with the Bishop of Girona.
Monument
The church of Sant Vicenç was originally the parish church of Besalú. Documented since 977, when Count Miró Bonfill granted it to the canonry of Santa Maria, the present building —from the late 12th or early 13th century— combines late Romanesque with already Gothic elements, such as the portal of the west façade, with a voussoired round arch. It has three naves with a transept and three semicircular apses; on the south wall a round-arched doorway opens, of highly elaborate late Romanesque work, with abundant decoration on capitals and archivolts. It holds the Gothic tomb of Pere de Rovira, who in 1413 brought the relics of Sant Vicenç to Besalú. A restoration following the fire of 1936 restored to the church the simplicity it had lost through earlier renovations.
Monument
The Castell Comtal de Besalú, in Girona, are the remains of the comital castle, atop the hill where the ruins of the church of Santa María also stand, built inside the fortress and consecrated as the castle's chapel in 1055. Of the castle, seat of the former counts of Besalú and documented since the year 977, few remains survive: a gateway with a large 11th-century voussoired arcade and a rebuilt square tower. In 1137 Count Ramón Berenguer IV granted the castle and its chapel to the Augustinian canons of Santa María, who enlarged the church in the 12th century; it became a collegiate church in 1592 and was abandoned in the early 19th century, sold during the disentailment of 1835. Today only the chancel and part of the transept of the church remain.
Monument
Of the walled precinct of Besalú (Garrotxa), declared a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), remains survive attached to houses, especially by the river and at the Arc on Carrer de Tallaferro; few walls and towers have survived of the many that once surrounded the counts' palace and the town, although in the casa dels Figueres some sections of considerable height are preserved, and most of the blocks are found beside the river Fluvià. Charlemagne divided the present-day province of Girona into four counties —Empúries, Besalú, Girona and Peralada—; the first known count, Odiló, ruled from 785 and authorized the founding of the monastery of Sant Esteve de Banyoles. After twenty independent counts, the county passed to the House of Barcelona when Bernat Guillem, the last of the dynasty, died without descendants.
Monument
Medieval Jewish ritual bath (mikveh), one of the few preserved in all of Europe, a testimony to the historic Jewish community of Besalú. From the Romanesque period, it is located by the river, right in the old call jueu (Jewish quarter) of the town, the neighbourhood where the medieval Hebrew community was concentrated.
Activity
The Festa Major of Besalú, with popular events in the town's medieval historic centre.
Monument
Former church and Augustinian canonry of the town of Besalú, below the walls and the castle, with Sant Genís as co-patron; founded in 977 by the count-bishop of Girona Miró Bonfill. Between 1017 and 1020 it was the seat of the short-lived bishopric of Besalú promoted by Bernat Tallaferro, who added to the church the dedications of Sant Salvador, Santa Maria, Sant Esteve and Lignum Crucis; its first bishop, Guifré, the count's son, was also abbot of the canonry. With the bishopric suppressed on the death of Bernat Tallaferro in 1020, the church lost its dedication and, around 1026, the canons moved to the church of Santa Maria de Capellada or de Bell-lloc; since 1075 there are no longer any documentary references to the old Sant Genís i Sant Miquel.
Monument
Church of the former hospital for the poor of Besalú, of which only the late 12th-century facade is preserved, with a six-arch portal in graduated recession -the second and fifth supported by circular columns-, a plain tympanum and a lintel supported by two decorated cartouches; at the top stood a bell-gable, removed during a restoration. It is believed to have been founded by the same count-bishop Miró who founded the monastery of Sant Pere, on land ceded to it, to shelter the poor of the town; the jurors and the town council created in 1336 the post of hospitaller monk, held by Bernat de Puig de Fornells. In the early 20th century it was deconsecrated and divided into two floors.
Monument
Former chapel of Besalú located opposite the church of the monastery of Sant Pere, in the place known as Prat de Sant Pere, where until the early 19th century there was a monastic cemetery of which it was the chapel; since modern times it has been known as Sant Jaume. The first documentary record dates from 1126, when it was agreed that the jurisdiction of the abbot of Sant Pere extended from the church of Santa Fe to the Fluvià river. It is a building of small dimensions, with a single rectangular nave covered by a barrel vault and a gabled roof; on the south facade opens a splayed window with a round arch that preserves the original stone eave. With reservations, it is attributed a 12th-century origin. After the disentailment of 1835 it passed into private hands and today it is a restaurant.
Monument
Santa Maria de Besalú is a church in Besalú (Girona) declared a cultural property of national interest, within the grounds of the former comital castle. Only part of its chancel is preserved: it was a temple with three naves, a transept and three apses, the central one much deeper than the lateral ones, decorated on the outside with blind arcading on pilaster strips. The quality of the ashlar work and the carved capitals place the building towards the end of the 12th century. It is first mentioned in 1055, as a castle chapel consecrated in the time of Count Guillem II; around 1171 it became the church of an Augustinian canonry dependent on the monastery of Sant Ruf d'Avinyó. The canonry was dissolved in 1592 and, after the disentailment, the ruins passed into private hands.
Historical milestone
Count Bernat Tallaferro obtained from Rome the creation of an episcopal see of his own for his county, with which he aspired to consolidate his independence from Girona and Barcelona; the bishopric disappeared when he died, in 1020.
Historical milestone
The death without heirs of Count Bernat III in 1111 brought an end to two centuries of independent county rule, and his domains passed to the House of Barcelona; Besalú lost its political capital status and became a market town on the Fluvià. The county had originated as a rural district dependent on Girona within the Marca Hispanica created by the Franks, and around the year 878 Count Guifré el Pilós separated it from Girona to give it to his brother Radulf, thus beginning two centuries of independence under the dynasty that died out with Bernat III.
Food and drink
Ratafia is a sweet liqueur made by macerating green walnuts gathered around Saint John's Day together with lemon peel, sour cherries, red carnation, mint, grapes and spices such as clove, nutmeg, cinnamon or bramble in brandy, then left out in the sun; the recipe varies from house to house and is passed down from parents to children. Deeply rooted in northern Catalonia, it holds the protected geographical indication Ratafia Catalana, which guarantees its origin and production. Besalú dedicates a fair to home producers each year during the December Puente de la Purísima long weekend, one of the most notable events along with the Feria de la Ratafia of Santa Coloma de Farners, held since 1981, and the festival of Centelles in June.