The legacy of Wilfred the Hairy.

Besalu is a medieval town, 5 kms to the east of us, dominated by a 12c Romanesque Bridge with a splendid fortified gate way at its mid point.

The bridge spans the River Fluvia and it is worth walking across its cobbled footway into the town itself with its winding streets and arcaded squares, a church built in 1003 , a medieval hospital and a superb exhibition devoted to the plight of the Jews who were forced into a ghetto in the middle ages and subsequently expelled from the town. There is also a very well restored and almost unique mitveh or Jewish ritual bathing place and a quite fascinating museum of minitures.

Besalu was ruled by the Counts of Besalu from the 8th Century, the most notable being Wilfred the Hairy who is created with the creation of Catalonia through unification, I would have thought a very noble effort indeed considering the religious and political rivalries of the times.