Guissona is a town and

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 ...

located in the north of the ''

comarca A ''comarca'' (, or , or ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a " ...

'' (

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

) of

Segarra Segarra () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain, situated on a high plain. Historically, the name referred to a larger area than the current comarca. It has a continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers, and between 350 and 45 ...

, in the province of Lleida,

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

, Spain. With 6,862 inhabitants (2015 census) Guissona (5,170 inhabitants in 2010) is the principal municipality in the northern half of Segarra and the second most populated in the county after

Cervera Cervera () is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Segarra, in the province of Lleida, Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain. The title Comte de Cervera is a courtesy title, formerly part of the Crown of Aragon, that has been revived for Leonor, ...

(9,328 inhabitants in 2009). In addition to the

populated place Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of Guissona, the municipality integrates the smaller place of Guarda-si-venes (31 inhabitants in 2007). The municipality is split into two parts, the bigger eastern part containing almost all the population. In the last half century, the town has experienced an important economic development mainly due to meat production and the creation of a

meat packing industry The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally ...

. Such development has run parallel to a fast demographic growth, from 3,060 inhabitants in 1998 to 6,145 in 2010. As a consequence, the municipality accounts for the highest percentage of immigrant population registered in the whole province.

Economy

The economy of Guissona is based on farming (plant crops,

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, star ...

) and the

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

industry. Guissona is the baseof

Grup Alimentari Guissona Grup may refer to: * Grup Gerak Khas, a special forces regiment of the Malaysian Army * ADD Grup, a developer and manufacturer of smart metering solutions * Transferoviar Grup, a private railway company in Romania * Grup, a term for grown-ups Sta ...

, an industrial and financial conglomerate originally created as an agricultural marketing cooperative, that distributes and commercializes the products of the area in its own chain stores.

Demographics

A table with the total population registered in Guissona in different years since 1497:

History

The first settlement known is the Iberian town of ''Iesso'' dating back to the early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

(8th-9th century BC). Iesso was located in the Northern area of the present town (''Plaça del Vell Pla''). The coinage minted by the Iberian settlement, of which a few examples are found within the Iberian coin collection of the British Museum, include an unidentified Male head, to the right and to left a club and an inscription. The reverse depicts a Horseman with a palm to the right and an Iberian inscription reading ''ieso'' below.Bagwell-Purefoy, P., and Meadows, A., (2002). Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (SNG). Volume IX. The British Museum 2. Spain. SNG No's 678-679 These date from the late 2nd to the early 1st century BC. The

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

conquered Iesso to transform it into a

. The town is mentioned by the Roman authors

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of import ...

. During that period a defensive wall was built that surrounded a more extensive surface than the present historic center. The remains of the Roman period are numerous, notably, the Roman

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

of the city. The archeological site includes the water supply of the actual Medieval enclosure, the wells of the public fountain, a number of

headstones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, ...

(e.g., the gravestone of ''Servilla Praepusa'' (2nd-3rd century AD), a sculpture of a Roman horseman, and the

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

located in the area of ''Cal Mines''. Guissona probably housed the episcopal see until it was moved to

La Seu d'Urgell La Seu d'Urgell (; es, Seo de Urgel, formerly in ca, Urgell}) is a town located in the Catalan Pyrenees in Spain. La Seu d'Urgell is also the capital of the comarca Alt Urgell, head of the judicial district of la Seu d'Urgell and the seat of B ...

as a consequence of the Muslin invasion of the area. In 975 AD the Christian

Borrell II, Count of Barcelona Borrell II (died 993) was Count of Barcelona, Girona and Ausona from 945 and Count of Urgell from 948. Borrell was first seen acting as Count during the reign of his father Sunyer II in 945 at the consecration of the nunnery church of Sant Pere ...

conquered the town, although the

Caliphate of Córdoba The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خلافة قرطبة; transliterated ''Khilāfat Qurṭuba''), also known as the Cordoban Caliphate was an Islamic state ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 929 to 1031. Its territory comprised Iberia and part ...

would conquer it back in 1015. By 1024, Guissona was recaptured and a rechristianization was instituted by Ermengol, bishop of Urgell.''The Bishop Builds a Bridge: Sanctity and Power in the Medieval Pyrenees'', Jeffrey A. Bowman, The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Jan., 2002), 7. In 1072, the Count

Ermengol IV of Urgell Ermengol (or Armengol) IV (1056–1092), called ''el de Gerb'' or ''Gerp'', was the Count of Urgell from 1066 to his death. He was the son of Ermengol III and Adelaide, whose family is not known, even if some scholars made her daughter of Guillem I ...

started the construction of a Romanesque church named ''Església de Santa Maria de Guissona'' (Church of Saint Mary of Guissona). Several centuries later, the church was knocked down to build the new church. The construction of the church extended along the 17th and 18th centuries, the opening ceremony was in 1800. The final work would be a mixture of different phases of Baroque (altars,

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

choir stalls A choir, also sometimes called quire, is the area of a church or cathedral that provides seating for the clergy and church choir. It is in the western part of the chancel, between the nave and the sanctuary, which houses the altar and Church t ...

) and Neoclassical styles. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

, the organ and all the

retable A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum it may be a simple shelf for candles behind an altar, but it can also be a large and elaborate structur ...

s were destroyed. In 1505, the construction started of ''Obra de Fluvià'' (or alternatively called ''Obra de santa Llúcia'') in an estate previously acquired by the Bishop of Urgell, a building planned to be a residence for the Bishop. In 1514, the works were interrupted. Its remains are located a kilometre away to the northeast, near the confluence of the Fluvià River and its tributary, the Sió River. The remaining architectonic elements were made in a late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. The building was constructed on a squared

floor plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

with a central

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

. The

Diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

of Urgell also founded an Augustinian monastery, transformed into a secular

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a Church (building), church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college (canon law), college of canon (priest), canons: a non-monastic or secular clergy, "secular" community of clergy, organis ...

in the 15th century. On 12 June 1837, there was a battle near the town fought by Carlist forces against the "Liberals" during the

First Carlist War The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1840, the first of three Carlist Wars. It was fought between two factions over the succession to the throne and the nature of the Spanish monarchy: the conservative and devolutionist su ...

. The Carlist army commanded by the

Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...

was defeated by the

Baron of Meer Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

, general-in-chief of the military region of Catalonia. The Carlist army had previously left

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

with the Carlist pretender of the crown,

Carlos María Isidro de Borbón Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhe ...

(the "Royal Expedition").

Alumni

Pedro Fages Beleta (

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...

: ''Pere Fages i Beleta'') (1734–1794), nicknamed ''El Oso'' (The Bear): soldier, explorer and the second military Governor of ''California Nueva'' (later known as

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

) from 1770 to 1774, and governor of

Las Californias The Californias (Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican st ...

from 1782 to 1791.

Main sights

* Remains of the Medieval defensive walls, including one of the gates. * ''La Plaça Major'' (

Town square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

), a square surrounded by arcades. * ''Església de Santa Maria'' (Saint Mary's Church) with Baroque and Neoclassical architectonic elements. * Municipal Museum, housing a collection of artifacts of archeological interest,

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and po ...

and art objects (paintings and sculpture.) * "''Obra de Fluvià''", the ruins of the unfinished

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

palace built in the 16th century. Late

style. Located in the rural-urban fringe of the town. Guissona 28-1-07 007.jpg, Guissona - ''El Portal'' (The Portal) Guissona 28-1-07 010 enh 1.jpg, Guissona - ''Obra de Fluvià'', the unfinished

Palace, 16th century

References

External links

Guissona's town council's web page

Government data pages

General information about Guissona published in Lleida.com and sourced by the provincial government
{{Authority control Municipalities in Segarra Populated places in Segarra