Vic (; ) is the capital of the ''

comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) 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 "march, mark ...

'' of

Osona Osona () is a comarques of Catalonia, comarca situated in the Central Catalonia, central region of Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Vic, Spain, Vic. Its population in 2001 was 129,543. Osona covers roughly the same area as the historic Catalan co ...

, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Vic is from Barcelona and from

Girona Girona (; ) is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the p ...

Geography

Vic lies in the middle of the

Plain of Vic The Plain of Vic (Catalan language, Catalan ''Plana de Vic'') is a 30 km long Depression (geology), depression located at the eastern end of the Catalan Central Depression in the Osona comarca. It is named after the town of Vic, Spain, Vic, a ...

, equidistant from Barcelona and the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

. Vic has persistent fog in winter as a result of a

thermal inversion In meteorology, an inversion (or temperature inversion) is a phenomenon in which a layer of warmer air overlies cooler air. Normally, air temperature gradually decreases as altitude increases, but this relationship is reversed in an inver ...

, with temperatures as low as -10 °C, an absolute record of -24 °C and episodes of cold and severe snowstorms. For this reason, and also for the relatively moist summers, the region's natural vegetation includes the pubescent oak typical of the sub-Mediterranean climates of eastern France,

Northern Italy Northern Italy (, , ) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. The Italian National Institute of Statistics defines the region as encompassing the four Northwest Italy, northwestern Regions of Italy, regions of Piedmo ...

and the Balkans.

Names

Originally known as ''Auso'', it was known in Latin as ''Vicus Ausonae''. From Latin ''vicus'' (neighborhood or urban population), it became ''Vich'' in

Old Catalan Old Catalan, also known as Medieval Catalan, is the modern denomination for Romance varieties that during the Middle Ages were spoken in territories that spanned roughly the territories of the Principality of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Valencia, ...

. In 1538, Lorenzo de Padilla writes Vic Bique and it appears as Vique in the ''Memorial'' of the Bishop of Vic, Antonio Pascual (ca. 1694) In 1715, Spain's

Nueva Planta decrees The Nueva Planta decrees (, , ) were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V of Spain, Philip V, the first House of Bourbon, Bourbon Monarchy of Spain, King of Spain, during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spani ...

for Catalonia gave the city the Spanish name of Vique; an invention which tried to avoid a consonant ending that is uncomfortable in the Spanish language, applying the logic of cases such as ''Mastrique'' (Maastricht). However, this artificial variant only remained for a time in Spanish official texts and, as early as 1789, it reappeared in the gazetteer as ''Vich''. In 1913 the new orthographic regulations by the Institute for Catalan Studies of 1913 eliminated from the Catalan language the mute h at the end of the word and in intervocalic position to simplify the spelling ( Normes ortogràfiques). Other analogous cases are those of ''Montjuïch'', ''Hostalrich'' and ''Reixach'', which are now written as Montjuïc, Hostalric and Reixac, respectively. Since 1982, the official name has been Vic.

History

The town has been described as "a hotbed of

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

sentiment". A

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

ing by the Basque separatist group

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

in 1991 killed 10 people in Vic.

Ecclesiastical history

The bishopric is a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of the archbishopric of Tarragona.

Education

*The Universitat de Vic (Vic University)

Demography

Vic has almost 28,000 registered voters.

Miscellaneous

The remains of Jaume Balmes, the Spanish philosopher of the 19th century, are interred in the cloister of the cathedral. His first centenary was celebrated at Vic by a Catholic Congress. Architect

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barc ...

(who lived in Vic for three weeks during May 1910) designed two

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

and

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

lampposts for the Plaça Major of Vic in honour of Balmes's centenary. The lampposts were inaugurated on 7 September 1910 but destroyed in 1924. Other natives of Vic include: *

Trinitarian The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...

Saint Michael de Sanctis * Joseph Sadoc Alemany, (1814–1888), born in Vic, later Archbishop of San Francisco * Caterina Coromina i Agustí (1824–1893), religious woman beatified in 2006 On 22 December 2005 some inhabitants of the city won a total prize of about 500 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s in the Spanish Christmas Lottery.Spanish town wins big in lottery
CNN, December 22, 2005. Archived on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

January 16, 2006.

Sport

The city has a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club, UE Vic, which was founded in 1922 and plays in the Lliga Elit.

Sources and references

* Panareda Clopés, Josep Maria; Rius Calvet, Jaume; Rabella Vives, Josep Maria (1989). ''Guia de Catalunya'', Barcelona: Caixa de Catalunya. (Spanish). (Catalan). *
Paul Freedman, "The Diocese of Vic"
has broad implications for the medieval history of Catalonia in general

of the Catholic-Hierarchy website

External links

*
Government data pages
{{authority control Municipalities in Osona