Girona’s ’hidden’ nooks and crannies

More than 2,000 plane trees make up Girona’s De­vesa park, which oc­cu­pies 40 hectares and is the largest urban park in Cat­alo­nia. The mass of fo­liage can be seen from just about any high point in the city, but de­spite its lush green­ery that promises cool shade in the sum­mer, the park is still not very well known out­side the city.

At the same time, the park is part of the sen­ti­men­tal legacy of many Girona res­i­dents, many of whom have spent af­ter­noons there pic­nick­ing, jog­ging, vis­it­ing the mar­ket or sim­ply strolling around the Ribes del Ter, next to the river. It also hides ex­quis­ite French gar­dens, the ideal place to sit and read or keep lit­tle ones en­ter­tained. The De­vesa park is one of those “hid­den” nooks of Girona that, for the time being at least, are largely free from the pro­ces­sion of tourists that visit the city.

In fact, many gar­dens in Girona can be con­sid­ered hid­den nooks that will de­light vis­i­tors. If a local is show­ing peo­ple around, after the typ­i­cal climb up to the cathe­dral, tak­ing guests to see green spaces such as the Francesa and Ale­manys gar­dens or the Pas­seig Ar­queològic, is not a bad op­tion. On the way, per­haps they will cross the usu­ally dry Gal­li­gants riverbed and con­tinue up through the John Lennon gar­dens, be­fore reach­ing the St. Daniel Monastery. And, if they are not too tired by this point, or per­haps on an­other day, they could fol­low the strange Cal­vari path, or view the city in its en­tirety from the high­est point, the Ale­manys Gar­dens, and then fol­low the city wall, which is worth doing in the evening, to watch the sun set be­hind the Montseny mas­sif.

If the host would like to pre­pare for the trip in ad­vance, they could even book a visit to the cathe­dral’s vaults and bell tower. If the vis­i­tors were to leave the cathe­dral through the nearby Plaça dels Apòstols, it might be worth pop­ping into the city’s Art Mu­seum on the way. Down the stone steps, stop­ping off for a cof­fee in the “bar that has a Cathe­dral on its patio” – as lo­cals know the bar by – is an­other pos­si­bil­ity.

Now in the lower part of the city, the vis­i­tors will come across a book­shop, which has slen­der shelves crammed to the top with books, and which has one door on to Car­rer de l’Ar­gen­te­ria and an­other on to Car­rer de les Ballester­ies, mak­ing it a great place to stop off and browse be­fore con­tin­u­ing ei­ther one way or the other.

Mean­while, a visit to the Cin­ema Mu­seum, the only one of its kind in Cat­alo­nia, can be the ideal way to top off a very dif­fer­ent type of day out in Girona, es­pe­cially if ac­com­pa­nied by chil­dren.

Hid­den gar­dens, se­cret cor­ners and strate­gi­cally placed cafes, as well as the city’s mu­se­ums, are just some of the pos­si­bil­i­ties for see­ing Girona from an­other per­spec­tive, and with­out the crowds of tourists.