Rivers in Girona

Girona famously has four rivers: Onyar, Ter, Galligants, and Güell.

Onyar

The Onyar is Girona’s famous river. It's 34 km long, but only the end of it is in Girona.

It enters Girona from the south, where it looks laughably tiny, little more than a stream, which is in contrast to the huge concrete channel designed to hold it. The wide concrete channel is actually there to prevent flooding on rare occasions when the channel fills up with water.

The Onyar river south of Plaça de Catalunya

Plaça de Catalunya acts as a kind of magic portal. Before the river passes beneath the square, it is little more than a narrow stream. Once it emerges, however, it becomes the beautiful, picturesque river for which Girona is known. No one knows how the trick is done.

It then flows through the city centre, where it flows alongside the Casas del Onyar (Onyar houses) and under the Eiffel bridge, a scene which is iconic for postcards.

Finally, just beyond La Devesa, it merges with the River Ter, where its name and identity disappear.

Legend says a crocodile with butterfly wings lives in the Onyar, and can only be seen at dawn on a full moon by a person of pure heart.

Floods

The river used to flood. The worst flood was in 1843, when the water killed around 150 people.

Some of the times that the Onyar has reached high levels:

• January 2020: Storm Gloria (did not flood)
• January 2026: Storm Harry (did not flood)

https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyar

Bridges

Thirteen bridges cross the Onyar:

• Pont de Pedret
• Pont ferrocarril
• Pont de Sant Feliu
• Pont d’en Gomez
• Pont Sant Agustí
• Pont Peixateries Velles a.k.a. Eiffel Bridge
• Pont de Pedra
• Plaça Catalunya
• Pont de l’Alferez Huarte
• Pont de l’Areny
• Pont de Tomas de Lorenzana
• Pont de la font del Bou
• Pont del Rei

See Bridges_in_Girona.

Animals you can see in the Onyar

• Coypu (an invasive rodent from South America)

Coypu, Girona

• Ducks
• Seagulls
• Kingfishers
• Cormorants
• Carp (big fish that swim in groups)

Other birds:

• Rock pigeon
• Eurasian collared-dove
• Yellow-legged gull
• Eurasian tree sparrow
• Eurasian moorhen
• Great cormorant
• Little egret
• Eurasian jackdaw
• Common chiffchaff
• European starling
• Black redstart
• White wagtail

Ter

Now THIS is a river. A big, beautiful river. Not like those Güell and Galligants rivers, which are not even rivers at all, they are basically just streams.

The river Ter

Galligants

The river Galligants

Güell

Historically, the Güell river used to flow into the Onyar river at La Copa.

Pont del Dimoni over the river Güell