Verdú
Verdú is a village and municipality in the province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain. It is traditionally associated with the Segarra region, but in 1936 was transferred to the comarca of Urgell.
The municipality covers 36 km2. The landscape consists of rolling hills with valleys and plains cultivated with grain, vineyards, and olive and almond trees. Small forests of pine and oak are scattered throughout the area. The Segarra-Garrigues canal and the Montblanc-Tàrrega highway both bisect the municipality, passing to the west of the town.
Today Verdú is known for wine, its traditional black pottery, its historic buildings such as its Castle and the Church of Santa Maria, its notable native St. Peter Claver, and recently its toy museum, that closed in 2013 and was converted to an art gallery.
The town is mentioned in a document from 1273. It is believed the name is derived from a Celtic name like Virodunum, meaning a fortress. It was subject to the Poblet monastery until 1835. The population of the municipality reached a peak of 2185 in 1887 but has since declined to 1002 in 2013.
Its history is marked by its membership the Poblet Monastery for six centuries (from 1227 to 1835). The population before the flood of 1184 was located in Cercavins, the river valley, beside a fountain and around the church of Santa Magdalena. After the flood that devastated three quarters of the old town, the lady and owner of Verdu, Berengaria of Cervera, made the villagers agree to move their houses above the floodplain, around the castle, which had begun to be built a century earlier.
In return, the villagers got walls and portals built surrounding the new town. Berengaria's son, Guillem of Cervera, sold the villa in Poblet. Under the auspices of the monastery, Verdú enjoyed many privileges and advantages, which made it succeed more than the surrounding cities, for many centuries. Evidence of this prosperity include the castle, the parish church, the whole streets and stately homes.
The municipality covers 36 km2. The landscape consists of rolling hills with valleys and plains cultivated with grain, vineyards, and olive and almond trees. Small forests of pine and oak are scattered throughout the area. The Segarra-Garrigues canal and the Montblanc-Tàrrega highway both bisect the municipality, passing to the west of the town.
Today Verdú is known for wine, its traditional black pottery, its historic buildings such as its Castle and the Church of Santa Maria, its notable native St. Peter Claver, and recently its toy museum, that closed in 2013 and was converted to an art gallery.
The town is mentioned in a document from 1273. It is believed the name is derived from a Celtic name like Virodunum, meaning a fortress. It was subject to the Poblet monastery until 1835. The population of the municipality reached a peak of 2185 in 1887 but has since declined to 1002 in 2013.
Its history is marked by its membership the Poblet Monastery for six centuries (from 1227 to 1835). The population before the flood of 1184 was located in Cercavins, the river valley, beside a fountain and around the church of Santa Magdalena. After the flood that devastated three quarters of the old town, the lady and owner of Verdu, Berengaria of Cervera, made the villagers agree to move their houses above the floodplain, around the castle, which had begun to be built a century earlier.
In return, the villagers got walls and portals built surrounding the new town. Berengaria's son, Guillem of Cervera, sold the villa in Poblet. Under the auspices of the monastery, Verdú enjoyed many privileges and advantages, which made it succeed more than the surrounding cities, for many centuries. Evidence of this prosperity include the castle, the parish church, the whole streets and stately homes.
Map - Verdú
Map
Country - Spain
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| Flag of Spain | |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| GL | Galician language |
| OC | Occitan language |
| ES | Spanish language |