Church of Sant Feliu

Collegiate church with a Romanesque base, Gothic vault, and pagan sarcophagi

The second great church of Girona's old town, dedicated to Sant Feliu (St. Felix), the city's first patron saint. The building spans a remarkable range of periods: the base is Romanesque, the nave Gothic, and parts of the exterior were added in the 18th century. The steeple was struck by lightning in 1581 and never fully rebuilt, which gives the church an appealingly asymmetrical profile.

Inside, the choir contains eight Roman sarcophagi from the 3rd and 4th centuries, some carved with pagan mythological scenes and later repurposed as Christian tombs. The recumbent figure of Sant Narcís — who replaced Sant Feliu as Girona's patron after the miracle of the flies (which, according to legend, drove away a French besieging army) — rests in a Gothic chapel on the left.

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Eight Roman sarcophagi are embedded in the church walls — pagan coffins from the 3rd and 4th centuries that were reused as Christian burials during the conversion of the empire. They sit in the church alongside medieval tombs and modern liturgical furniture in a layering of history that is deeply Girónan.

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