VIC COSTA BRAVA

The opening of the C25 highway, tunneling through the north of the Montseny mountain range from Girona, has brought the ancient market town of Vic within easy reach of the coast. This is a town known even among Catalans as the essence of Catalonia, with an attractive medieval centre containing architecture from Roman to Modernist, enclosed by a ring road on the site of the old city walls.

The best time to visit Vic is on a market day, when the main square is buzzing with life. Fruit and vegetables are sold at one end, flowers at the other. while the arcades around the edges shelter everything from baby chicks to second-hand books. Stalls at the centre of the square sell bric-a-brac pottery. Household utensils and cheap clothes, and a crafts and whole food market is set up in the neighboring square.

The butchers and sausage-makers on Carrer dels Argenters do a brisk business. Vic has long been renowned for its sausages and the streets of the old town echo with gossip. By 3PM the bars are full and the market has been cleared away; by 4PM the cleaners have done their job, the cafes have put out their chairs and you can sit in the sun and appreciate Plaza Major as it is the rest of the week, with pigeons in the square, children playing in the sand and no sign that a market has taken place at all.

 Vic's cathedral was begun in the 11th century, but the present building dates from 1803, when the Romanesque bell tower was incorporated into a new neoclassical design. Parts of the original cloister survive, with a 14th century Gothic cloister on top. The most unusual feature is the set of wall paintings by the Catalan mural artist Josep Maria Sert. His first paintings were damaged by fire during the Spanish Civil War and the replacements were inaugurated only days before his death in 1945. The striking red and gold colors and apocalyptic Biblical scenes form a powerful link between the persecution suffered by Christ and that felt by Catalonia at the hands of Spain. Sert is buried in the cloisters. A few of the remaining pieces from his first decoration of the cathedral are displayed in the Capella de la Pietat, a baroque chapel on Carrer Cardona.