Girona’s secret and mystical past
I’ve added this section more as a result of personal interest into a part of Girona’s history that’s not often mentioned in any of the standard tourist guides.
I’ve always held an interest in ancient mysteries, stories or facts that challenged the standard perception of what’s written in our history books.
Delving into this subject has revealed some interesting links between Girona’s Jewish past and Rennes Le Chateau in France (written about in The Da Vinci Code) and the Holy Grail legends.
This latter location is a whole big, continuing mystery on its own and I was lucky to visit this hilltop village a few years back. It’s about 3 hours by car from Girona, a distance of 180kms. There’s plenty of information online and on Youtube.
These observations are also featured heavily in a book by the author Patrice Chaplain (City of Secrets) which I’ve read and recommend as further reading. She lived in Girona in the past and delves into numerous Girona-based myths.
There’s also an interesting video by Carrie Kirkpatrick entitled ‘Mystical Legends-Girona, a city of secrets’ which is worth watching.
Many of the locations in that video were clearly very familiar to me as we’d often walked through those same Girona streets, gardens and open spaces she mentions.
What had previously seemed like just plain old stone walls, alleyways and narrow streets took on a different light. Particularly after I’d visited Rennes Le Chateau and read Patrice Chaplin’s book.
Here are some additional links to research the matter further.
http://www.fengshuiseminars.com/tours/renne-le-chateau-2011.html This page explores the link between Renne Le Chateau and Girona in much more detail. They also offer tours but as the page is dated 2011 this may no longer be the case.
In this interview link below, the author of City of Secrets Patrice Chaplin talks more about her time in Girona and her thoughts on the grail legend. https://andrewgough.co.uk/interview_chaplin/