What to see in Besalú

It is the image of the town and also its front door. It is documented as early as the 11th century, it has seven arches, and it is 105 metres long and around 30 metres high including the tower.

What you cross today is the result of many rebuilds. A flood destroyed it in 1315 and it was rebuilt thanks to a tax established by James II at the request of the town notables. By 1881 neither the defence tower nor the gate survived, it was dynamited during the Spanish Civil War, and it was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s under the architect Pons-Sorolla.

Today it is pedestrian and free, it takes a couple of minutes to cross, and it is how everyone enters the old town.

A Jewish community lived in Besalú from the 9th century until 1436, when it left for good. It had its synagogue, documented in 1264, next to the old square of the Jews, and it left a mark on the town out of all proportion to its size.

What survives of that quarter surprises most people who arrive without knowing about it. On the site of the synagogue you can see part of the prayer hall and the courtyard, and underneath lies the mikveh, the ritual bath that turned up unexpectedly in 1964, uncovered from above. It is an underground Romanesque room of cut stone, with a barrel vault, a narrow slit window facing east, and a pool that filled naturally with water from a spring that no longer exists.

The mikveh cannot be visited on your own: it is kept locked and only opens for a visit arranged through the tourist office. The rest of the quarter is yours to wander, and it is worth walking down towards the river on that side.

Only the church of the Benedictine monastery survives, and it is enough to understand how much weight this town once carried. It was founded in 977 by the count-bishop Miró and consecrated in 1003 by Bernat I, known as Tallaferro, the most important count in local history. The founding community had twelve monks.

It is a building that gains a great deal from being seen inside, so if you find it open it is worth going in. From the square you cannot tell the scale of it.

Facing the monastery stands Casa Cornellà, a noble house from the late 12th century that goes unnoticed from the street. It is still privately owned, so what you get to see depends on the day.

On Plaça de la Llibertat, the centre of town life, stands the Cúria Reial, a noble building from the 13th and 14th centuries. Upstairs it keeps its Gothic hall with a 14th-century coffered wooden ceiling, and the ground floor now houses the Espai Besalú interpretation centre.

This is the liveliest corner at midday, with its arcades and terraces, so if you are after quiet photographs come back later.

Sant Vicenç is the parish church, documented from 977. It is Romanesque with elements of the transition to Gothic, such as the rose window and the large window on the façade, and it sits slightly off the usual circuit, so it is usually quiet.

Sant Julià is a different story: not just a church, but the old 12th-century church-hospital. The counts of Besalú founded it to care for the pilgrims passing through the town, although the monks of Sant Pere held jurisdiction over it.

Its doorway is one of the finest preserved in this part of Catalonia and deserves a close look. The building was used as a hospital again in the early 20th century and today houses a community and cultural centre.

The town did not begin down by the bridge but up on the hill: there is a castle documented in the 10th century and, next to it, the remains of the collegiate church of Santa Maria. It was one of the most important churches of its day. A refurbishment is documented in 1055, from 1137 it housed an Augustinian community, and its central vault collapsed in the 18th century.

They are ruins now, and the climb takes only a few minutes, but this is the best viewpoint over the whole town and it explains its shape: three walled perimeters that grew outwards between the 11th and the 14th centuries.

And there is one element you cannot see at all: the Ganganell, the stream that separated the medieval core from the monastery and worked as a natural moat. From the late 13th or early 14th century it was channelled and covered over, so today it runs under a street that carries its name.

The old town is walkable end to end and it is not big: half a morning covers it well, and if you stay for lunch and climb the hill, the day fills itself. The town has around 2,500 inhabitants and the monuments are concentrated between the bridge and the monastery.

Traffic in the historic centre is regulated: private vehicles that do not belong to residents may only stop, not park. The practical move is to leave the car in the car park at the entrance, next to the bridge, and walk in. It is free and it sits right by the tourist office.

The tourist office is at Carrer del Pont 1, at the start of the bridge, and opens daily from 10 to 14 and from 16 to 19. That is where you arrange the visit to the mikveh, the one part of the town you cannot see on your own.

Besalú makes far more sense when somebody tells you what you are looking at. The stones carry no sign explaining why the bridge bends, who lived in the Jewish quarter, or what a pilgrims' hospital was doing in a town this size.

The app has audio guides made by local guides that walk you through the town at your own pace, with the guide's voice in your ear. You buy one once and listen when you get there: no group, no fixed departure, nobody else's schedule to fit around.