I walked among the ancient gravestones for a while until my eyes alighted on one engraved inscription.  A translation sat above it.

Pacific was I in life, from my very beginning much was I able to achieve with my hands. When my time came, I was still bathed in light. 

And beneath that: His light went out and he was joined with his people in the month of Shevat in the year (5)131.

So long ago, so long forgotten, I mused, this epitaph for a man once loved and deeply mourned, and now once again remembered. 

My attention turned to a wall niche containing a photograph of a scrubby hillside and an exhibit card titled Montjuïc, Mountain of the Jews. On this hillside just outside the city, the Jews of ancient and medieval Girona buried their dead, and it is from here that most of the funerary artifacts preserved in the Museum came.  There are plans to restore the cemetery as part of the Archeological Museum, returning the gravestones, which have been thoughtlessly used over the years as building materials, paving stones, and even washboards, to their original dignity.

Another set of steps took me to a second level lined with paintings and sculptures that bespoke of the universal Jewish experience. My overall impression of this exhibit was “spare”: the museum never strives to overwhelm. I exited the gallery through an archway into an inner courtyard, the vine covered Bonastruc ça Porta, where I rejoined the guide and my tour group.  It was time to hear the rest of the story.

For nearly 500 years, the call was sealed off as Gironans built over and around it, obliterating the Jewish quarter from living memory. Beneath the bricks and behind the walls, the remnants of El Call lay secretly silent. Finally, in the 18th century, people began to relocate to the new part of town, and the old town fell into decay. Later, in the 1970s, it became fashionable to build homes on the hills surrounding the old town, and from there people eventually restored the more ancient homes and moved back into the medieval quarter. 

During this time, Jose Tarres, a restaurateur, acquired a group of eleventh-century buildings near the 15th century Cathedral that still dominates the old city.  While preparing for the restoration of his property, he discovered the remains of a medieval yeshiva, a school of Torah studies, founded, as it was later discovered, by Rabbi Moses ben Nachman also known as Nahmanides, a renowned philosopher, Talmudist, and Kabbalist of the 13th Century. One can only imagine the moment of this unexpected discovery. “Oh … my… God! What have we here?”

Tarres, who has been describe as a “kind of poet,” became convinced that he was living in what was once a Jewish enclave. Without any other historical evidence, he set the Star of David in the middle of his new patio floor and began to spread the word of his discovery. 

No one believed him.  “What? A Jewish quarter in the heart of Girona? Never.”

Interestingly, small groups of Jewish scholars had long known that medieval Girona was an important center of Jewish learning and mysticism. The mystical writings of Rabbi Nachmanides are world-renowned to this day, but the Gironans were unaware of his connection to their city. And since Franco’s time, during which the history of Catalonia ceased to be taught, the city was plunged into an even deeper unawareness — unawareness so deep that even the late 18th century discovery of over twenty Jewish tombstones atop a local hill failed to arouse curiosity.

But that was about to change.  Now that the old town had become desirable real estate, property owners, began pulling up bricks and tearing down walls that had locked away hidden buildings and streets. Soon the emerging evidence could no longer be denied. Girona had a Jewish heritage of which it knew nothing. Possibly the most surprising part of this story is the passion with which the city embraced its discovery. In the late 1970’s, mayor Joaquim Nadal, committed the necessary resources to purchasing and restoring properties within the call. An in-depth search of old city documents uncovered twelve thousand archival manuscripts written in Hebrew, Catalan, and Latin. The bindings of one old book contained one hundred Hebrew parchments that revealed details of domestic life, commentaries on the Talmud and the description of one of the three synagogues that once existed within the call. Old documents also revealed names, including names of Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid expulsion and had remained in the city, names that could be traced down to current generations. Gironans had discovered more than a lost community, they had discovered a part of their own blood heritage. 

Today the excavations continue while the museum serves as an important center for Jewish studies and cultural preservation. Our young guide pointed to a high window that looked down on the patio in which we stood. There, she explained, Jewish scholars from all parts of the world come to study ancient parchments that have been hidden for centuries within the bindings of old books. The careful deconstruction of these old bindings is still in progress and will no doubt continue for years to come. During the summer months, performances of Jewish music and dance take place within the courtyard. Children come to the courtyard on warm evenings to hear Jewish folktales.

“Do you have many Jewish families in Girona today,” asked one member of my group. Our guide’s eyes widened as she shook her head. “Oh, no,” she replied with a sincere note of regret. “They all left you see. And they never came back.”

I, who am neither Jewish nor an historian, was moved by the guide’s simple response. It evoked images of a distraught people leaving their homes; their buried loved ones, their mystical community, never to return. A time of loss beyond measure it was, so long ago, so long forgotten, and now once again remembered. Today, Gironans are demonstrably proud of this archeological treasure and, to the benefit of many, eagerly share its riches with scholars and tourists alike. 

Visiting Hours

The museum is open every day but Jan. 1 and 6, and Dec. 25 and 26. Summer hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday and holidays. Address: Carrer Forca 8, POB 450, 17080 Girona, Spain. Museum phone and fax: 34-972-21-67-61. On the Net: www.ajuntament.gi (Centre Bonastruc ca Porta) and www.redjuderias.org. E-mail: callgirona@grn.es or e-mail: friendsgirona@aol.com. 

How To Get There

From Barcelona by car you take the A7, Exit 7. Calculate about 18 Euros for tolls.  The bus leaves from Barcelona’s Nord and costs 20 Euros. The Ca2 train to Girona departs every hour. To explore other parts of the Costa Brava you can rent a car at the train station in Girona, or you can travel by train that stops at all the cities along the coast. A Spain Flexipass costs $175 for second class and $225 for first class for three days of travel within a two-month period. Rail and Drive versions are also available. Rail passes must be bought in the United States before traveling to Europe. (Rail Europe: 888-382-7245, www.raileurope.com).

Where To Stay

Hotel Carlemany
Plaza Miquel Santalo
17002 Girona
011-34-972-21-12-12
www.carlemany.es

Provides comfortable and contemporary accommodations with all the amenities. The hotel is within walking distance to the shops and the Old Quarter. Doubles about $133 - $150. Breakfast buffet, $12.

To contact S.A. Click Here