Turisme Garrotxa’s support for audiovisual productions has helped make Besalú’s selection as a filming location for this international project possible.

This Thursday and Friday, 30 and 31 July, Besalú’s medieval bridge served as a filming location for several scenes from Disney’s new live-action adaptation of Tangled. The production chose this iconic heritage site in La Garrotxa as one of the settings for the film.

The choice of Besalú as a filming location is the result of a pre-production process that began several months ago. On 12 February, Turisme Garrotxa accompanied a Disney delegation, including the project’s director, members of the location team and representatives from other technical departments, on a location-scouting visit to several sites in the town, with the medieval bridge among the highlights.

Turisme Garrotxa acts as the Film Office for La Garrotxa, a service aimed at facilitating the arrival and management of audiovisual productions in the region. Its work includes providing advice on filming locations, coordinating with the relevant public authorities, and guiding production teams through the permits and authorisations required to carry out filming.

This work is carried out in coordination with the Catalunya Film Commission (CFC), the network promoted by the Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies (ICEC), which promotes Catalonia as a destination for audiovisual productions. Turisme Garrotxa is part of this network, helping to showcase filming locations throughout the region and establish contact with national and international production companies interested in filming in La Garrotxa, always in coordination with local authorities, as in this case with Besalú Town Council.

Indeed, the opportunity to accompany Disney’s pre-production team during its visit to Besalú was made possible thanks to this collaboration and Turisme Garrotxa’s membership of the Catalunya Film Commission.

The production of Tangled is filming at various locations across Spain, including Girona’s Old Town, Burgos Cathedral and several locations in the Valencian Community, with Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante serving as the main production hub. In this context, the choice of Besalú’s medieval bridge strengthens La Garrotxa’s presence in one of the most prominent international film productions currently being shot in Spain.

Besalú’s involvement in this project demonstrates La Garrotxa’s potential as a filming destination and highlights the importance of having a Film Office connected to the Catalunya Film Commission, capable of facilitating contact between production companies and the region and supporting them throughout the entire location-scouting and filming preparation process.

The presence of a production of this scale once again confirms the appeal of La Garrotxa, and of towns such as Besalú, as distinctive locations for audiovisual projects with major international reach.