Send Gift Baskets to Lleida, Spain

Anciently, the city was known as Iltrida and Ilerda and was the chief city of the Ilergetes tribe. The Carthaginians and Romans were repelled by Indibil, king of the Ilergetes, and Mandoni, king of the Ausetanes.

An important place historically and geographically, Hispania Tarraconensis was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis under the Romans. This city was built on an eminence overlooking the Sicoris River (modern Segre), the principal tributary of the Ebre, some distance above its confluence with the Cinga (modern Cinca); as a result, it commanded the country between those rivers, as well as the great road from Tarraco (modern Tarragona) to the northwest of Spain, which crossed the Sicoris here.

In 49 B.C., the legates of Pompey in Spain made it the key to their defense against Caesar because of its situation. The Battle of Ilerda, as narrated by Caesar in his own words, is one of the most exciting passages of military history because Afranius and Marcus Petreius threw themselves into the place with five legions. A series of natural events and the formation of the district seemed to favor Caesar’s enemies, but he ultimately prevailed thanks to his skill as a general. Petreius and Afranius capitulated at the end of the conflict. Those who wanted to cast bad luck on someone used the Latin phrase Ilerdam videos due to the battle.

The Roman Empire made Ilerda a prosperous city and a municipium, and the country minted coins. Over the Sicoris was a fine stone bridge (the foundations of the bridge still support a bridge today). In the Middle Ages, the city rose again into importance after falling into decay during the time of Ausonius.

In 1149, Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona conquered it from the Moors after it had been part of Visigothic and Muslim Hispania.

Until 1717, it was the site of a major university, the oldest in the Crown of Aragon, but Philip V moved it to Cervera nearby. Nowadays, Lleida University has been active again since 1991.

As a result of the Reapers’ War, rebel and French forces occupied Lleida. In 1644, the Spanish conquered the city under D Felipe da Silva.

Lleida was a key defense point for Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War but fell to the Insurgents when their air forces bombed it heavily in 1937 and 1938. Because the Legion Condor aimed for Lleida’s Liceu Escolar de Lleida, the November 2, 1937 attacks became particularly infamous. As a result of the November 2 bombings, 48 children and several teachers were killed, and the town would be bombed and sieged again in 1938 when Franco conquered it.

Despite decades without population growth, the town experienced a massive migration of Andalusians that helped it grow relative to its surroundings. Currently, there are immigrants from 146 different countries living there.

Catalan culture was the year’s capital in Lleida in 2007.