Gerona [antikvár]

GERONA PROVINCE Gerona Province is a mosaic of seven natural districts, each with its distinctive characteristics and all united by common historical events. They are El Gironés, La Garrotxa, Alto Ampurdan, La Selva, Bajo Am-purdan, El Ripollés, and La Cerdana (only part of «La Cerdana», along with the «Conflent», «Vallespir» and «Rosellón» districts belong to the Gerona Province because of the ill-fated Treaty of the Pyrenees). These are the districts which make up the Geronese panorama, and which offer, according to both natives and strangers, a geographic unity of such variety, exquisitness, beauty, and uniqueness that it is difllcult indeed to be matched. Gerona's location in Northeast Spain has forged its inhabitants' vigo-rous character and an undefinable mark of fatalism which may measure as an atavistic instinct at any moment. The area itself is perfect for an intermingling of races, peoples, and warriors. Prehistorie men have left their imprint in these lands (Neanderthal jawbone, fascinating remains, and many Megalithic monuments) as have Iberians, Celts, Swabians, Vandals, Greeks, Romans, Cartheginians, Visigoths, Franks, and Arabs. There were also the French, who, with their continuous invasions and uninterrupted entries and exits, came to level and to build, to raise and to tear down, all with a thought of continuity. Now that airplanes cross this invisible «Via Augusta of the Air», parallel to that of Roman times, we are offered a magnificent, synthetic view of the landscape (facilitated by the «Gerona-Costa Brava» Airport): old rugged Cerdana with its peasant cattle-raising life beneath the harsh rocks of rustic churches where time seems to sleep in the door hinges; El Ripollés with its celebrated forges, the cradle of independence, her history of the Santa Maria Benedictine Monastery which tells' of Wilfred the Hairy and Abbot Oliva, the untiring promoter of Catalan Romanic style; La Garrotxa, resting in its bucolic atmosphere beneath the shade of «Puigsacalm», crater holes, the genius of its painters, and the magie of Amadeu's, and Blay's and Clara's chisels, whose works can still be found in the patriarchal air surrounding old country houses; spacious Ampurdan, open to the four winds, the ancient bride-chamber of Shepherds and Syrens, cradle of Romanic art according to Deulofeu; El Gironés, many-colored, be-spattered with monuments of all types, marked by the invadors' grape-shot; Lower Ampurdan, austera, with medieval fortresses, curled up by waves of invading barges and the sheerness of the coast and forest, Havana dances brought from across the sea years ago by mariners can still be heard, resting beneath the attentive stare of ruined castles. All this and more can be found in Gerona. The land rises to near inac-cessible Pyrenean peaks and descends humbly to the Mediterranean where life-giving sap from ancient cultures arrived to her. 4 Santa Cristina de Aro. «La barraca d'en Dayna», one of the most impor- ^ tant megalithic monuments in the Province.