Girona is a city of stairways, all of them going up. Or so it seems.

The ancient Catalan city covers a craggy promontory rearing above the juncture of the Onyar and Ter Rivers. It was a defensive position lusted after by the original Iberians, colonial Romans, the invading Arabs, and by Charlemagne, who took the city in 785 in an attempt to cut off the Moorish advance into France. Fortifications rose, were destroyed, and built again. Many of them are still extant, protecting a web of narrow alleys that rise ever upward, gathering at the top for sweeping views over the rumpled landscape of plains and abrupt hills.

Girona was also home to a thriving Jewish community in the Middle Ages, right up until the Catholic Kings Isabel and Fernando ordered all Jews and Muslims who refused to covert to Christianity expelled in 1492 (a momentous year, that). Virtually all signs of that sub-society were erased, and until only a couple of decades ago, the Jewish presence went unremarked. Once the dictator Franco croaked and the country set about establishing a sturdy democracy, interest grew in resurrecting the story of Girona’s Jews for reasons both commerical - tourism - and cultural - who are we? It wasn’t easy, there being no Jews left to spearhead the reclamation. But scholars and community activists persisted. Evidence was unearthed. A couple of suspected synagogue locations were pinpointed, a museum created - the Museu dels Jueus.

A visit to the old city best starts with a stop at the information office next to the Parc de la Devesa, on the west side of the Onyar, where maps and walking tours can be obtained. It’s a short walk from there across the Pont (Bridge) d’en Gómez, toward the imposing landmark cathedral on the opposite side of the river. The colorful houses at waterside, drying laundry unfurled, provide an understandaby popular photo op.

Inside the lower quarter are shadowed lanes with attractive shops purveying clothing, ceramics, and not too smothering selections of tourist gimcracks, with café tables set out under trees in wide spots at street intersections, sometimes centered around a splashing fountain. Don’t ignore the possibilities of frequent stops, because the walk is inexorably up. UP.

By fortuitous choice of path, you might reach the back of the Gothic Cathedral that dominates the skyline from below. Then you can merely stroll around to the front and enter through the Baroque facade. Otherwise, a frontal assault requires mounting a daunting staircase of many broad steps and a stop to catch breath. It’s a worthy structure, though, a single center aisle to the largest Gothic nave anywhere. The adjoining Romanesque cloisters, older than the church itself, demand a look. They remain from the church that preceded this one.

Nearby are the Banys Arabs - Arab Baths - the second most popular attraction in town. One wee explication, though. These “Arab” baths were built about four centuries after the Moorish armies were pushed out of this region entirely. They were constructed, nonetheless, according to Muslim prescription. The central room has a pool with pillars supporting what is called a lantern, a sort of open-sided cupola. Beyond this are three more chambers devoted, in turn, to hot, cold, and warm baths. It’s easy enough to conjure couples and groups of robed merchants and administrators making deals over steam and ladles of cold water.

Exiting the Baths, see ahead the arched entrance to the Passeig Arqueológic (Archeological Passage), a parkway that ascends, quite steeply, beneath poplars and fir trees, with scenic overlooks at frequent intervals. Apart from the views, there isn’t much else up there, so turn back downhill and descend to the commercial part of the old quarter for lunch. The better restaurants start opening at 1:00.Those that open earlier are inevitably mean little tourist snares, with lots of false smiles, brusque service, and indifferent food once you have been lured inside and settled at table. Better to settle for sandwiches at a likely looking bar or café.

Allow at least two or three hours to take it all in.

Tags: Arab baths, Girona, Onyar and Ter, Passeig Arqueológic