Monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants

The Monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants sits at the edge of Girona’s old town, below the cathedral hill, near the stream of Galligants from which it takes its name, and it is one of the finest Romanesque complexes in Catalonia. A Benedictine community was established here in the tenth century, and it grew into an important monastery in the Middle Ages. The buildings that stand today date mainly from the twelfth century, when the church was rebuilt in a Romanesque style with Lombard influences, characterised by thick walls, rounded arches and decoration made of simple blind arcades.

The church has a basilica plan, with three naves, a transept and a large apse, and its proportions are massive and sober. The beauty of the building lies in its restraint and in the carving of the capitals, which are full of life. In the central nave and in the cloister, the capitals show human and animal figures, plants, scenes and monsters, and one of the best-known details is a mermaid with two tails, a motif that appears in Romanesque art across Europe. The octagonal bell tower and the rose window on the facade are other notable features. Next to the church stands the small church of Sant Nicolau, an earlier Romanesque building that is now used as an exhibition room.

The layout of the cloister is unusual. Instead of a regular square with galleries on four sides, it is an irregular space with arcades on only some sides, because the monks had to fit it around the Galligants stream and the slope of the land. The monastery lost its religious function in the nineteenth century, and the buildings were then used for other purposes, among them as a Civil Guard barracks, before being restored in the twentieth century.

Today the monastery, at Carrer de Santa Llúcia 8, houses the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia in Girona, a branch of the national archaeological collection. The displays cover the area’s ancient history from prehistoric times through the Greek colony of Empúries, the Roman and Medieval periods, with stone inscriptions, funerary monuments, pottery, tools and other finds, including important Jewish tombstones from the medieval period, which are among the most significant in Catalonia. The combination of Romanesque setting and archaeological collection makes the visit rewarding, and the building has also appeared as a filming location for the television series Game of Thrones, which attracts some visitors.

Practical details are simple: the monastery in Girona, Spain, is open most days, with shorter hours on Sundays and holidays and closure on Mondays, and tickets are inexpensive. Check the official hours before going. It is a short walk from Girona Cathedral, the Girona Art Museum, the Basilica of Sant Feliu and the Jewish Quarter, and the visit takes about an hour.