Week 4: Visiting Besalu, Girona and Figueres

This week I visited the Museum of National Art of Catalunya and visited Besalu, Girona and Figueres through a class excursion to learn more about the bilingual community of Catalunya along with the history of each city. 

In the art museum, I learned about the progression of Catalan art from its Roman to Gothic times and how the representation of people changed over time. In the picture above, you can see one of the largest Gothic pieces in the museum. After visiting the museum, I took a tram ride up to Montjuic to see an amazing city view! 

During my class excursion to Besalu, we viewed this fort that was used for protection of the city. It was interesting to learn about the Jewish community that was present along with the Christians as well as viewing one of the four Mikvahs in the world. 

In Girona, our class took another tour and viewed the history of Girona from the Plaza of Independence to the cathedral and scenes where Game of Thrones was filmed. My favorite part of Girona was the widespread use of Catalan and how nice and open people were to talk about their experiences. I also enjoyed attending a local concert one of the evenings. 

Finally, I visited the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres where I learned about his life and viewed surrealist paintings like the one painted above. There were no descriptions of the paintings since Dali designed the museum and wanted the viewer to use their imagination to create their own interpretation as a response to his work. Learning about how his life was influenced by the death of his brother and his relationship with his wife, Gala, this museum was definitely one of my favorites in Spain! 

As my study abroad experience concludes, I plan to revisit some of my favorite places in Barcelona and treasure my time here before returning home.