Mercat del Lleó (Girona's Central Market)
Housed in a handsome 1930s iron-and-glass pavilion on Plaça Calvet i Rubalcaba, the Mercat del Lleó is where Girona's chefs and home cooks shop every morning, and a vivid, delicious introduction to the ingredients that make Catalan cuisine tick. The smell of ripe tomatoes, cured sausage and fresh-cut herbs hits you the moment you push through the doors.
What to Look For
The market is particularly famous for its wild mushrooms in autumn — rovellons (saffron milk caps) and ceps piled in wicker baskets the size of wheelbarrows — and for the exceptional local charcuterie, including botifarra sausages made to recipes that haven't changed in generations. The fish stalls in the back section display the morning's catch from the Costa Brava: razor clams, red prawns from Palamós and whole sea bass still shining.
Don't leave without picking up a jar of mel de l'Empordà (local Empordà honey) and some of the aged cheeses from the Pyrenean foothills sold at the dairy counters near the main entrance. Vendors are used to curious visitors and most will offer a taste without being asked.
Eating at the Market
Several bar-counters inside the pavilion serve breakfast and lunch to market workers and regulars. Pull up a stool at any of them for a €2 cortado and a fresh-baked coca (a flat Catalan pastry) — this is about as local as breakfast gets in Girona.
The market is also the starting point for understanding why the restaurants around Girona, including Michelin-starred El Celler de Can Roca a short taxi ride away, are so ingredient-obsessed. The raw materials on these stalls are genuinely extraordinary.
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