Girona's museums

The Museu d'Art is housed on the southeastern side of the cathedral in the restored Episcopal Palace. The early rooms deal with Romanesque art, including some impressive Majestats (wooden images of Christ wrapped in a tunic) taken from the province's churches. Among the manuscripts on display are an eleventh-century copy of Bede's works and an amazing martyrology from the monastery of Poblet. The collection then progresses chronologically as you climb the floors, passing a room of bright fifteenth-century retables (their intricate scenes almost 3D in effect), some splendid Renaixement works – such as a lovely set of sixteenth-century liturgical items – and nineteenth- and twentieth-century Catalan art on the top two floors.

Again within the cathedral complex, the Chapter museum houses the famous 11C tapestry depicting the Creation. Within ten minutes' walk from the cathedral are the Arab baths, Monestir de Sant Pere de Galligants - now site of the Museu Arqueològic, and the Promenade along the Medieval ramparts.

Housed in an eighteenth-century convent, the fascinating Museu d'Història de la Ciutat on Carrer la Força contains the preserved bodies of past inhabitants. As well as providing insights into how Girona developed as a city, which is explained through text, exhibits and photos, there is also a hotch potch of more modern inventions, including old radios from the 1930s, a 1925 Olivetti typewriter, a printing press, cameras, machine tools, engines and a dozen other mechanical and electrical delights.

Of more modern vintage, there is a delightful Cinema Museum just across the river from the old town on Carrer Sèquia.

Home