The County of Manresa ( ca, Comtat de Manresa, es, Condado de Manresa) is the western extremity of the County of Osona, divided into the

Moianès Moianès () is a ''comarca'' in the centre of Catalonia, Spain. It became a comarca in May 2015, following approval in a local referendum and by the Parliament of Catalonia. Its 10 municipalities were in the comarques of Bages, Osona, and Vallès ...

and

Bages Bages () is a comarca (county) in the center of Catalonia, Spain. It includes a ''subcomarca'', Lluçanès. Industries include the mining of potash at Súria and Sallent, and the manufacture of textiles along the rivers Llobregat and Carden ...

. Through the

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

, Manresa was extended as far as

Anoia Anoia () is a comarca (county) in central Catalonia, Spain, with its capital at Igualada. The comarca of l'Anoia is irrigated by the Anoia River; the leading industry is the making of paper. To the north are Solsonès and Bages, to the west, ...

Segarra Segarra () is a Comarques of Catalonia, comarca (county) in Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Catalonia, Spain, situated on a high plain. Historically, the name referred to a larger area than the current comarca. It has a continental climate, wi ...

, and

Urgell Modern-day Urgell (), also known as ''Baix Urgell'' (''baix'' meaning "lower", by contrast with Alt Urgell "Higher Urgell"), is a ''comarca'' (county) in Catalonia, Spain, forming only a borderland portion of the region historically known as Ur ...

. The castle at Manresa dates from the last quarter of the ninth century.Lewis, 131. In that period, the region, depopulated since the rebellion of

Aissó Ayxun or Aissó was a nobleman who led a revolt in Barcelona, Ausona, and Girona in 826 to 827. His identity is uncertain. Aissó is thought to have been either a Goth and former lieutenant of the disposed Count Berà, or an Arab (Ayxun ibn Sulay ...

in the 826, was repopulated by settlers from the overpopulated regions of

Pallars Pallars is a historical and natural region of Catalonia. Located in the Pre-Pyrenees and Pyrenees area, most of its territory is mountainous. The Noguera Pallaresa river is named after this region. Geography The physiography of the Pallars natu ...

and Cerdanya. The repopulated regions came under the control of

Wilfred the Hairy {{Infobox noble, type , name = Wilfred , title = Count of Barcelona , image = Wilfredo el Velloso 01.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = Statue in Madrid, L. S. Carmona, 1750–53 , al ...

, who gave them their ecclesiastical and political organisation. The Valle de Lord was attached to the

County of Urgell The County of Urgell ( ca, Comtat d'Urgell, ; la, Comitatus Urgellensis) is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya. History The county of Urgell was carved by the Franks out of a former sectio ...

and the ''

pagus In ancient Rome, the Latin word (plural ) was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory, which included individual farms, villages (), and strongholds () serving as refuges, as well as an early medieval geogra ...

'' of

Berga Berga () is the capital of the ''comarca'' (county) of Berguedà, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is bordered by the municipalities of Cercs, Olvan, Avià, Capolat and Castellar del Riu. History Berga derives its name f ...

(

Berguedà Berguedà () is an inland comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain, lying partly in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees, and partly in the Catalan Central Depression. Geography The northern half of Berguedà, known as Alt Berguedà (“Upper Berguedà� ...

) to the County of Cerdanya, but the region of the Ripollès, the Lluçanès, the

Plana de Vic The Plain of Vic (Catalan ''Plana de Vic'') is a 30 km long depression located at the eastern end of the Catalan Central Depression in the Osona comarca. It is named after the town of Vic, an important and ancient urban center in this natu ...

, and the

Guilleries The Guilleries Massif (Catalan ''Les Guilleries'') is a mountain system located at the apex of the Catalan Transversal Range and the Pre-Coastal Range. The highest point of the range is Sant Miquel de Solterra or Sant Miquel de les Formigues (1.2 ...

were structured around the city of ''Ausa'', a region which in ancient times had been ethnically distinct, inhabited by the

Ausetani The Ausetani were an ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) people of the Iberian peninsula (the Roman Hispania). They are believed to have spoken the Iberian language. They lived in the eponymous region of Ausona and gave their name to the Roman city of '' ...

. The County of Ausona was thus born and to it Wilfred attached the Moianés and Bages, which already had their own traditional capital, Manresa, which had historically been the region of the Lacetani. From the year 906, it is clear from documents that Manresa never possessed any judicial or administrative significance — it never had a

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicia ...

— rather it was a geographical unit solely. The centre of Manresa was the ''pagus'' of the same name. The most notable difference between Manresa and the rest of Ausona was due to privileges granted by King Odo in 889 and 890 whereby he gave Manresa the right, because of its position on the front line against

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

aggression, to build towers of defence called ''manresanas'' or ''manresanes''. Manresa fell into disuse as a term in the twelfth century, when the county was divided into

vegueria The ''vegueria'' (; pl. ''vegueries'') was the feudal administrative territorial jurisdiction of the Principality of Catalonia (to the Crown of Aragon) during the Middle Ages and into the Modern Era until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716. Th ...

Sources

*Lewis, Archibald Ross.
The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050
'. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.

Notes

{{coord, 41.7282, N, 1.8263, E, source:wikidata, display=title Medieval Catalonia