The Call Beyond the Postcard

Girona's Jewish Quarter, El Call, is frequently presented as a tranquil, frozen-in-time enclave of medieval narrow alleyways. However, the true history of this legendary neighbourhood is far more dynamic and contested than romantic travel brochures suggest. Across six centuries, this space was continuously negotiated, expanded, forcibly enclosed, abandoned during the 1492 Expulsion, re-inhabited by Christian homeowners, and eventually reinvented during the late twentieth century. This walking tour peels back layers of myth-making, contrasting popular legends with hard archival records, notarial deeds, and recent archaeological discoveries. Walking down ancient Roman foundations and through stepped stone passes, you will examine the concrete physical evidence of medieval life, ghettoization, post-expulsion adaptive architectural reuse, and modern historical recovery.