Iberians were the first historical inhabitants in the region of present Girona, at at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell; Girona is the ancient Gerunda, a city of the Ausetani.

The Romans later built a citadel there, which was given the name of Gerunda.

The Visigoths ruled in Girona until it was conquered by the Moors.

Finally, Charles of the Franks reconquers it in 785 and makes it one of the fourteen original countships of Catalonia.

…Girona and …

Philip III, with his son Charles of Valois, entrenches himself before Girona in an attempt to besiege it in 1285.

The resistance is strong, but the city is taken.

Charles is crowned here, but without an actual crown.

On April 28, Cardinal Jean Cholet places his own hat on the count's head.

For this, Charles is derisively but not unaffectionately nicknamed roi du chapeau ("king of the hat").

Construction begins in 1312 on the Gothic cathedral of Gerona, planned—like those at Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca—to include a giant arcade and a French-style semicircular chevet.

The extraordinary vaulting spans planned for Gerona, a result of audacious engineering, are intended to cover the widest uninterrupted nave in Europe, designed to accommodate the crowds who come to hear the preaching friars.

…Hug Roger marches on Gerona, where he is received warmly on June 6 while the queen and the prince take refuge in the citadel, the Força Vella ("old fort"), throughout the month.

Gaston of Foix, leading a French army, takes Gerona on 23 July and rescues the queen and prince.

With John of Lorraine dead, René had appointed John's eldest bastard son, John of Calabria, Count of Briey, his new lieutenant.

In 1471, the French troops fighting with the Catalans retired to France and the advantage shifts decidedly to John II.

Joan Margarit, the Bishop of Girona, returns his city to John in October 1471, followed by other towns.

The French raid the Empordà as far as Girona in 1476, and John, his allies tied up by their own wars, cannot even oppose them.

Spain, where the Spanish can offer nothing more than token resistance and the Allies are unable to provide enough support, is the only decisive theater on the continent.

The war in Spain is a sideshow, however, for Louis.

The theater is dominated by amphibious warfare where naval assistance is necessary to seize coastal towns, of which Barcelona is the greatest prize.

The French forces, commanded by Duke de Noailles, numbered twelve thousand in 1690 dropping to ten thousand in 1691; only in 1694 when other fronts are relatively quiet does the Spanish front grow in importance, (but even now Louis invests only twenty-six thousand troops).

After Roses fell in 1693, the French had driven deeper into Catalonia, and defeats the Spanish at the Battle of Torroella (Ter) on May 27 and taking Palamos on June 10; Gerona falls on June 29.