Alcarràs () is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the
''comarca'' of the
Segrià
Segrià () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia (Spain). It is located in the western region of Ponent, bordering Aragon. , over two thirds of its population live in the capital city of Lleida, which is also Catalonia's sixth largest municipality ...
in
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
. It includes a small
exclave
An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...
to the south.
It has a population of .
Etymology
Of Arabic origin, in ancient documents (12th century) it appears with the form ''Alcaraz''. According to Arabist Miguel Asín, it would come from the Arabic "al-Karas" with the meaning of "cherry".
History
The current town is of Islamic origin, but it does not appear historically documented until the 12th century. In the ''Ordinatio'' of
diocese of Lleida from 1168, it appears as Alcarraz, just like in other documents, referring to the Saracen castle and the church. According to
Zurita, count
Ermengol VI of Urgell
Ermengol or Armengol VI (10961154), called el de Castilla ("the one from Castile"), was the count of Urgell from 1102 until his death. He was the son and successor of Ermengol V and María Pérez, daughter of Count Pedro Ansúrez, Lord of Vall ...
conquered Alcarràs,
Alguaire and
Aitona
Aitona () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Segrià
Segrià () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia (Spain). It is located in the western region of Ponent, bordering Aragon. , over two thirds of its population live in the capital city of L ...
in 1147-48 (while
Ramon Berenguer IV was in Almeria) and the conqueror is named by
father Finestres (1752) Guillem d'Alcarràs, son of Guerau de Jorba, lord of Montmeneu, Òdena, and Rubinat and relative of the counts of Barcelona. This surname, adopted after the conquest, would have been maintained by his descendants, closely linked to the
hospitallers
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
and the
templars
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the most important military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 11 ...
.
In the 16th century, his successors became related to Castilian families and even ceased to reside in Barcelona. The population again suffered the consequences of the
Reapers' War
The Reapers' War (, ; , ), also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Franco-Spanish War of 1 ...
and the French governor of M. de Rogles occupied the
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
(1642), where they put a garrison, and then the castle was definitely disabled as confirmed by Marquis Filipo de Corsini, who accompanied
Cosimo de' Medici
Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was an Italian banker and politician who established the House of Medici, Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derive ...
in 1668, when he says that they found a very ruined population called Alcarràs, belonging to Marquis "di Lafuente" (the successors of the Fernández de Heredia were counts of Fuentes), where the remains of a small castle were barely visible. By inheritance from the aforementioned Heredia, the domain of the place passed to the dukes of Solferino at the beginning of the 18th century, who maintained it until the abolition of the lordships.
Alcarràs also suffered the
War of Succession
A war of succession is a war prompted by a succession crisis in which two or more individuals claim to be the Order of succession, rightful successor to a demise of the Crown, deceased or deposition (politics), deposed monarch. The rivals are ...
, but in 1721 it had partially recovered and constituted a town hall (since 1500 a small municipal council had been run with three ''jurats'' or ''paers''). In the 18th century, coinciding with a notable demographic increase, the great church was built and the nucleus extended along the Madrid road (1777), the current Raval de Lleida.
In the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...
, the residents of Alcarràs became
sometent and fought under the orders of
Colonel Baget in the
Sierra de Alcubierre and the
Bruc. The French army occupied the town in 1810, facing the capture of Lleida. The town hosted liberal detachments in the
first
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
and
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system
Places
* 3rd Street (di ...
Carlist wars.
Madoz, in the middle of the 19th century, still speaks of some towers of the old castle, which was demolished at the end of the same century. In 1840, with the constitutional town hall, schools were created and in the summer of 1896 the spa of Alcarràs appeared, with ferruginous sodium chloride waters, good for skin diseases until the doors closed in 1920. New industries also appeared (flour, sulfides, brandy, etc.).
Historically irrigated with the
Pinyana Canal, at the beginning of the 20th century, the waters of the
Aragon and Catalonia Canal also arrived.
Referendum of 1 October 2017
During the
Catalan Referendum for the Independence on 1 October 2017, Alcarràs was one of the populations where the Spanish police beat the citizens in order to impede the voting.
However, the citizens voted with a total of 2,799 votes (53,4% of the registered population), from which 2,578 voted for yes (92.6%) and 171 voted for no (6.1%). A total of 80 anti-riot agents from the
Spanish Civil Guard
The Civil Guard (; ) is one of the two national law enforcement agencies of Spain. As a national gendarmerie, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Minis ...
showed up at the voting center at 8:45 am and found 500 people who were peacefully blocking their way. They attacked the people without warning nor previous mediation thus hurting 20 people.
The mayor of Alcarràs, Miquel Serra, was judged and sentenced to 3 months of political disqualification and a fine because he "did allow" the referendum.
In September 2022, a few hours after the announcement that the film "Alcarràs" was elected by the
Spanish Academy of Cinema to go to the Oscars, a Wikipedia user with an IP from the Ministry of Defense of the Spanish Government modified the entry in Wikipedia in order to eliminate the data about the violence of the police and to add the quality of "illegal" to the Referendum for the Independence.
Movie ''Alcarràs''
In 2022, the town became famous due to the film ''
Alcarràs'', of
Carla Simón
Carla Simón Pipó (born 22 December 1986) is a Spanish film director. Most known for her films '' Summer 1993'' (2017) and '' Alcarràs'' (2022), for the latter she received the Golden Bear at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival.
Biog ...
, which won the
Golden Bear
The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...
at the seventy-second edition of
Berlinale
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
and became the first film in Catalan to receive this award. The film was filmed in the town with its
ponent
Ponent, also known as the Lleida region following the vegueries law, is the westernmost of the eight regions (Vegueria, ''vegueries'') defined by the Regional Plan of Catalonia. It has an area of 5,586 km2, and 365,289 inhabitants as of 2022. ...
ins inhabitants as non-professional actors.
Symbols
The official coat of arms of the municipality was approved in 2007 with the description "caironet coat of arms: argent, a
vert
Vert or Verts may refer to:
* Vert (heraldry), the colour green in heraldry
* Vert (music producer) (born 1972), pseudonym of Adam Butler, an English music producer
* Vert (river), in southern France
* Vert (sport), a competition in extreme versio ...
holm oak. The timbre, a town crown", which is why it belongs to the category of
canting shields, even if it is also considered to represent the centenary oak located within the town. During the 19th and 20th centuries, oval shields alternated with a tree or a castle.
The flag reproduces the old oval shield with a tree on a maroon background.
Geography
The town is connected via the
A-2
A2, A02, A002, A², A.II or A-2 may refer to:
Biology and medicine
* British NVC community A2 (Lemna minor community), a plant community
* A2, the second anal vein in the Comstock-Needham system of insect wing segment naming
Genes and proteins
* ...
highway (exit 451: L-800 Vallmanya/Alcarràs) and the
AP-2 highway (exit 5: Alcarràs).
The distances from Alcarràs to other cities are: to
Lleida
Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...
8 km, to
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
150 km, to
Zaragoza
Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
140 km, to
Huesca
Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...
100 km, to
Tarragona
Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...
100 km, to
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
450 km, to
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
270 km, and to
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
325 km.
Population
1900–2020
Places of interest
* The Centenary Oak is the image of the symbol and municipal shield of the town.
* The Old House of Canonges and Ermita de Santa Anna, a scattered house of the 18th century.
* Montagut Castle, of Saracen origin and of which only a few vestiges remain.
* The Circuit d'Alcarràs, is a motorsport race track inaugurated in May 2007.
* The Church of Mare de Déu de l'Assumpció, built between
1760
Events
January–March
* January 9 – Battle of Barari Ghat: Afghan forces defeat the Marathas.
* January 22 – Seven Years' War – Battle of Wandiwash, India: British general Sir Eyre Coote is victorious over th ...
and
1765
Events
January–March
* January 23 – Prince Joseph of Austria marries Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Vienna.
* January 29 – One week before his death, Mir Jafar, who had been enthroned as the Nawab of Bengal and ...
, with a baroque-style facade.
* Joaquim Montoy Library, inaugurated in 2006, has a surface area of 493 m
2 and a collection of 18.000 documents.
* Cal Macià, 17th-century farmhouse, the manor house of
Eugènia Lamarca, wife of President
Francesc Macià
Francesc Macià i Llussà (; 21 September 1859 – 25 December 1933) was a Catalan politician who served as the 122nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army.
Politically, Macià evolved from an ...
.
Culture and holidays
The Municipal Institute of Culture of Alcarràs (IMCA) hosts all the cultural and festive entities and associations of the town. It meets a couple of times a year in order to program and coordinate all the events and activities that will be developed by all these entities and groups.
Web de l'Ajuntament d'Alcarràs
, llista d'entitats que integren l'IMCA
Holidays specific to the town:
* The major winter holiday, in honor of Saint Sebastian
Sebastian (; ) was an early Christianity, Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Diocletianic Persecution of Christians. He was initially tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, though this d ...
: January 20
Events Pre-1600
* 250 – Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution.
*1156 – Finnish peasant Lalli kills English clergyman Henry (bishop of Finland), Henry, the Bishop of Turku, on the ice of Köyliönjärvi, Lake Köyli� ...
(although it lasts four days before or after this date, as appropriate).
* The major summer holiday: the last weekend in August.
References
External links
Official website
Government data pages
Spanish paramilitar police attack videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcarras
Municipalities in Segrià
Populated places in Segrià