Send Gift Baskets to Girona, Spain

Girona was the ancient Gerunda, a city of the Ausetani populated by the first Iberians in history. Gerunda, which the Romans later built, was the name given to the citadel. Before being conquered by the Moors in 715, Girona was ruled by the Visigoths. It became one of the 14 original counties of Catalonia when Charlemagne reconquered it in 785. The Moors sacked it four times in 827, 842, 845, and 935. The County of Barcelona was created in 878 by Wilfred the Hairy, who incorporated Girona into it.

As early as the 11th century, Alfonso II of Aragon and I of Barcelona established Girona as a city. Peter III of Aragon gave his firstborn son John the title of Duke in 1351, transforming the ancient county into a duchy within the Principality of Catalonia. As a result, King Ferdinand I gave Prince Alfonso of Girona the title of Prince of Girona in 1414. The title is currently held by Princess Leonor of Asturias, the second woman to hold the title since the 16th century.

Approximately 885 is the earliest documented date of a Jewish community in Girona. As one of Europe’s most critical Kabbalistic schools, Girona had a flourishing Jewish community in the 12th century. As Great Rabbi of Catalonia, Moshe ben Nahman Gerondi (Nahmanides or Ramban), the Rabbi of Girona, was appointed. In 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs outlawed Judaism throughout Spain and gave Jews the option of conversion or exile (see Alhambra Decree), the Jewish community of Girona ended. Before that time, the Jewish cemetery was beside the road to France, just north of the old town near the mountain Montjuc, or the hill of the Jews in medieval Catalan.