Thursday - Outside of Barcelona

Today we were picked up by a driver at 9 AM and driven about an hour to the town of Figueres. This is the birthplace of Salvatore Dali and the location of the Dali Museum. We met our private guide, Gloria, who gave us a tour of the museum, including the history of Dali and his wife Gala. I can't say I was a Dali fan before coming here, nor can I say I'm interested in owning a Dali after this tour, but Gloria gave us a whole new take on the genius/madness of this artist/self-promoter. His work is certainly interesting, as well as weird, and contains so many layers of psychological and sexual innuendo. I didn't realize he did sculpture, jewelry-making, film-making, and writing in addition to painting. We were delighted, entertained, and really educated by Gloria.





From there we drove about 20 minutes to the town of Girona, which contains a well-preserved Jewish Call (Quarter) and The Museum of Jewish History.


Gloria was very well schooled on Judaism and Kabbala, in addition to the Jewish history of Girona. Eric and I had read quite a bit about Girona prior to arriving in Spain. It was the birthplace in 1194 of Moses ben Nachman or Nachmanides, one of the highest religious and legal authorities of his time. Many other renowned Jewish philosophers, poets, writers, physicians, and cartographers lived in Catalan (the region in which Barcelona and Girona are located). Girona itself had a famous school of Kabbala. During the 14th century, the Jewish community of Girona started to come under attack from the Catholic Church, culminating in the massacre of 1391. Most Jews were killed, converted, or fled. What few were left were forced to flee from Spain in the expulsion of 1492 under Ferdinand and Isabela. It is a sad history, but one that is being preserved and explained through the Museum of Jewish History.

Walking through what is left of the Calle is an eerie and bittersweet experience. Gloria pointed out two instances of holes cut into the doorposts of houses - where the mezuzah would have been placed.




Perhaps the saddest thing we saw were remnants of the gravestones from Girona's Montjuic (Mountain of the Jews) where the Jewish cemetery was located. When the Jews were expelled in 1492, they left behind the graves of their ancestors. The grave markers were removed over time and used in construction of roads, etc. A number of these were recovered and placed in the Museum and their Hebrew inscriptions are still legible.








Gloria is a fantastic guide who has a true interest in teaching non-Jews about the Jewish history of her home town of Girona. For us she was the perfect guide for this region of Catalan.

We drove back to Barcelona thoroughly exhausted both mentally and physically. The temperatures are in the mid 90's and the sun is broiling. Our driver told us on the way back to Barcelona that we should be prepared for even more heat in Madrid this weekend. Help, help, I'm melting!

Marcia