After the boom of Game of Thrones a decade ago, Girona is once again becoming the setting for a major international series. This weekend, the city center hosts the filming of the first season of Tomb Raider, by Amazon MGM Studios, with actress Sophie Turner as the protagonist. It is the live-action adaptation of the famous video game franchise starring the adventurous archaeologist Lara Croft, which had already reached the big screen at the hands of Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander. Now it does so in series format and will premiere next year. In addition to Turner, the cast features prominent names such as Sigourney Weaver and Jason Isaacs, and the production is by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as creator, screenwriter, and executive producer. 

A Catalan clarinettist and a Syrian oud player creating music together. This is the story of Oriol Marès and Talal Fayad, two young musicians who blur the lines between genres and cultures, moving between influences from jazz improvisation, Latin rhythms, and Middle Eastern resonances. With their quartet, in 2025 they released their first album, Estuarium, and are already working on their second, titled Uncivilized, which they will present in October at the Fira Mediterrània in Manresa, after touring China and South Korea.

In Bescanó, a small town of just over 5,000 inhabitants located west of Girona, on the banks of the Ter river, dozens of residents gather every fortnight at the municipal theatre to enjoy an auteur cinema screening in its original version. They are organized by the Cineclub de Bescanó, an associative project founded 5 years ago, which now has 280 members and has held over 100 sessions. During this time, it has screened Hollywood classics, the best releases from independent European cinema, or the latest hits from Catalan cinema, featuring prominent names such as Marcel Barrena with El 47,Isaki Lacuesta with Segundo premio, Judith Colell with Frontera or Sergi López with Sirat. And always with a very good reception from the audience. The weekend of June 6 and 7, Bescanó will also host the XXI meeting of cineclubs from all over the Catalan Countries.

On June 17, 2023, the political reality of Ripoll changed completely. Silvia Orriols, under the banner of Aliança Catalana, became the first far-right pro-independence mayor in Catalonia, after Junts, ERC, the PSC, and the CUP failed to agree on forming an alternative government. The town of Ripoll, with about 11,000 inhabitants, deeply marked by the trauma of the 2017 Rambla attacks, became a key point in Catalan political geography and had a direct impact on the decisions of the national leaderships of the parties. The latest media case: that of the two socialist councilors who were sidelined amid reproaches for voting in favor of Orriols' budgets.

After the Harry storm in January, which flooded the riverbeds and streams of the Baix Empordà, the Palamós EDAR wastewater treatment plant became completely unusable. Electrical installations, pumps, motors, and laboratories, submerged under two meters of water and mud, were completely damaged. 187 l/m² fell. The Aubi stream, next to the plant, overflowed, and workers had to swim out. Total disaster. Since then, the Consorci d'Aigües Costa Brava Girona, belonging to the Diputació, which is responsible for the infrastructure, has been working against the clock to repair the damage and bring the machinery back into operation. The objective is clear: to have everything ready to face the summer campaign with guarantees. The priority is maximum, as it is a key infrastructure for cleaning the wastewater from the coastal towns of the Baix Empordà. An area that, from Sant Joan onwards, significantly increases the number of visitors and residents.

This weekend, coinciding with the final stretch of Temps de Flors, Montjuïc Castle in Girona received a floral offering. It was brought by the residents of this neighborhood, situated on a hill at the northern entrance of the city, far from the hustle and bustle of the center. They were not, however, to decorate and make it look nice, but rather an act of protest due to the poor condition of the fortress, as, although it is considered a cultural asset of national interest (BCIN), it is in a ruinous state: the stones are crumbling, weeds are growing, it is full of graffiti and dirt. Residents barely step foot there and it has become a meeting point for anti-social individuals.

The Girona Auditorium Palau de Congressos celebrates twenty years of history, fully consolidated as one of the major cultural engines of Catalonia. In these two decades, almost 1.9 million people have passed through its halls to enjoy nearly 2,400 concerts and more than 1,200 conferences and events. Coinciding with the anniversary, the Girona venue is organizing, from May 22 to 24, a celebration weekend with high-profile musicians such as Miguel Poveda, the soprano Lise Davidsen and a participatory concert with invited artists, as well as conferences linked to the sector. To review it and discuss present and future challenges, we speak with the director, David Ibáñez.

A 33-year-old Honduran woman was murdered on Tuesday, in broad daylight, in a square in Figueres (Alt Empordà). Allegedly, the stabbed his ex-partner to deathThe atrocious murder has generated deep indignation in Figueres and has drawn criticism to the administration for the lack of protection for the victim and the functioning of protocols and risk prevention in gender violence. Patrícia Melgar, principal investigator of the gender research group at the University of Girona (UdG), is blunt: "A feminicide is the culmination of a process of violence and whenever it occurs it means that everything prior to reaching that point has failed. But the case of Figueres is especially flagrant because it was preceded by assaults within the framework of a violated restraining order," she explains.

The Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guardia Urbana have arrested a 48-year-old man for stabbing his ex-partner to death in the middle of the street in Figueras. The events occurred around half past two in the afternoon in Plaça Tarradellas, when the man attacked the victim with a knife in broad daylight and in front of several witnesses. As reported by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) at dusk, the arrested man had a restraining order against his ex-partner for mistreatment offenses and had been arrested just one day before the crime for violating it.

The sonso is one of the most prized fish on the Costa Brava. Very small in size, around 10 centimeters long, it is usually served floured and fried. An excellent tapa to whet the appetite, the kind you just keep eating, present in many of the seafood restaurants and bars in Catalonia. In recent years, however, sonso catches have fallen significantly on the Catalan coast and, from the Generalitat, at the behest of the European Union, a management plan has been drawn up that regulates catch limits and long closed seasons during autumn and winter. 

The anthropologist and sociologist Roger Bartra Murià (Mexico City, 1942) is an authority in Latin America in the field of social sciences. Son of the poet Agustí Bartra and the writer Anna Murià, he was born and raised on the other side of the Atlantic, far from Catalonia, due to the forced exile of his parents, persecuted by Francoism. Throughout his life, in Mexico, but also in Venezuela, the United States, London, and Paris, he has forged a career as a professor and intellectual, with notable contributions in areas such as exile or the construction of national identity. This week he is in Girona, invited by the Ferrater Mora Chair of the University of Girona (UdG), to give five lectures at the Faculty of Arts and a conference open to the public, on Thursday at the Centre Cultural La Mercè, on exile and travel.

Albert Recasens Barberá (Cambrils, 1976) is one of the foremost specialists in Hispanic classical music from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Director of the historicist ensemble La Grande Chapelle, for two decades he has combined passionate musicological research with performance and artistic direction, always with the recovery of unpublished works from the Spanish baroque as a common thread. This Saturday, May 9, in Cervera, as the inaugural event of the Espurnes Barroques festival, he premieres La vida es sueño… en música, a hybrid proposal that intertwines theater and music based on the mythical text by Calderón de la Barca, a master of the Golden Age. The show-concert, produced in collaboration with Ignacio Arellano, editor of the playwright's works, and stage director Eva Rufo, features some fifteen performers who combine theatrical dialogues on stage with villancicos, tonos, motets, and madrigals by composers with whom Calderón had worked, such as Juan Hidalgo, Tomás Torrejón, and Cristóbal Galán.

On the afternoon of Friday, May 1st, the Girona-based group Minibús Intergalàctic was performing at the Ateneu Salvadora Catà in Girona. It was an open-air, self-managed concert, held between independence and Palestinian flags, to celebrate the eleventh anniversary of this social center. Two days later, their phones started ringing off the hook. The reason was that Pedro Sánchez, in his weekly TikTok videos of cultural recommendations, recommended them to his followers, more than 800,000: "I've listened to this group I didn't know, from Catalonia, from Girona. I recommend, from their latest album, this song that I loved, which is Per sentir-me ple", said the president of the government.

The public sector contract law is based on the principles of free competition and equal opportunities. Any company, entity, or person from all over Catalonia can submit bids for public administration tenders. This also applies to those from the Spanish State and any country in the European Union. The awarding bodies are very demanding and do not accept any criteria that discriminate on the grounds of origin or nationality. However, these public tenders, which are necessary to guarantee transparency and prevent favoritism, sometimes result in surprising awards, with decisions that are difficult for citizens and local businesses to understand.

Yeni Sánchez, 33 years old, is Honduran and has been living in Girona with her husband for three years. She has two children, a boy and a girl. In recent months, she has been living in an irregular situation after losing international protection. This week, however, she has been able to apply for the "extraordinary regulation for migrants. She has already submitted the application and, within weeks, she expects to have the provisional response to obtain residence and work permits. "It has been a horrible few months, but now I'm starting to feel calm and very hopeful," she explains.

A romancero is a traditional composition in verse, intended to be sung or recited in a festive and popular setting, which narrates current events as a social chronicle. Many musicians interested in folk heritage have replicated the formula, such as Jaume Arnella, Quico Pi de la Serra, or Bob Dylan himself. Now, the group Fetus, from La Bisbal d'Empordà, has also joined this trend and has just released their sixth album, Romancer tartera (Bankrobber, 2026), made up of 13 punk-rock rooted romances. They talk about the most recent Catalan reality, referring, more or less subtly, to the commuter trains, the airport expansion, the PSC, Sílvia Orriols, Carles Mazón, or the America's Cup. The first live concert is on April 30th in Barcelona, at the Teatre Casinet d'Hostafrancs, and they will then continue in Girona (May 9th), Lleida (May 16th), and Altafulla (May 30th), before an intense summer touring all over Catalonia.

Girona's Devesa park woke up this Monday to an absolutely unprecedented crowd. A stream of people, mostly young people and teenagers, from all over Catalonia and beyond, have been queuing since the crack of dawn, summoned by the announcement of a casting call for the new Disney film Tangled (Enredats), a Disney live-action remake of the original animated film, which will be shot in July in the city and is expected to be released from 2027 onwards. By midday, the line of interested people still surrounds the entire Girona park: from the Palau Firal, where the casting is taking place, to past the roundabout of the courts and the esplanade of La Copa. The surrounding streets are also packed, the car parks are saturated, and at some point in the morning, traffic problems have even been generated.

The Devesa Park in Girona woke up this Monday to an absolutely unprecedented crowd of people. A line of people, mostly young people and teenagers, from all over Catalonia and beyond, have been queuing since the early hours, summoned by the announcement of a casting for the new version of Disney's movie Tangled (Enredados), by Disney. It will be a live-action remake of the original animated film, which will be shot in July in the city and is expected to premiere from 2027 onwards. By midday, the line of interested people in participating in the production still surrounds the entire Girona park: from the Palau Firal, where the casting is taking place, to beyond the roundabout of the courts and the explanada de la Copa. The surrounding streets are also full, car parks are saturated, and at some point in the morning, traffic problems have even occurred.

Just over a year remains until the next municipal elections, and in most municipalities, parties are already pulling strings to nominate their candidates and configure their lists. In the four Catalan capitals, a good portion of the candidates have already announced if they will run again, and new names entering the municipal dispute have also been revealed, but there are still unresolved unknowns.

Girona is a medium-sized city of just over 100,000 inhabitants. Within a few kilometers, a diverse and contrasting urban landscape is concentrated, with very little physical distance between affluent and humbler neighborhoods. As confirmed by the data from the Annual Population Census of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), analyzed by ARA, district 2, which includes Montilivi and part of Palau, has around 9% of its population born abroad, while, at the same level, but on the southwest side of the city, in Santa Eugènia, this proportion exceeds 50%. the data from the Annual Population Census of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), analyzed by ARA,district 2, which includes Montilivi and part of Palau, has around 9% of its population born abroad, while, at this same level, but on the southwest side of the city, in Santa Eugènia, this proportion exceeds 50%.