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'' (, , , ) 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 ...

'' (

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

) of

Segarra Segarra () is a Comarques of Catalonia, comarca (county) in Ponent, 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 cl ...

, in the

Province of Lleida The Province of Lleida (; ; ) is one of the four provinces of Catalonia. It lies in northeastern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Catalonia, and is bordered by the provinces of Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Zarag ...

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 ...

, Spain. With a population of and a rapid demographic growth (5,170 inhabitants in 2010) Guissona 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 ...

(). In addition to the

populated place In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to t ...

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 Slaughter (livestock), slaughtering, Food processing, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and o ...

. 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, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

) 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 takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...

industry. Guissona is the baseof Grup Alimentari Guissona, 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 historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

(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 conquered Iesso to transform it into a

. The town is mentioned by the Roman authors

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

. 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 gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

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

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

located in the area of ''Cal Mines''. Guissona probably housed the

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

until it was moved to

La Seu d'Urgell La Seu d'Urgell (; , formerly ''Urgell'') is a town located in Alt Urgell county in Alt Pirineu, Catalonia, Spain. The town is also the head of its judicial district and the seat of the Bishop of Urgell, one of the co-princes of Andorra. It is ...

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

Borrell II, Count of Barcelona Borrell II (died 993) was the 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 Sa ...

conquered the town, although the

Caliphate of Córdoba A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

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 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 The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

(altars,

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

, choir stalls) and Neoclassical styles. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, 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 struct ...

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 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 a ...

. The

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, 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 Roman province, prov ...

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

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

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 Monarchy of Spain, Spanish monarchy: the conservative a ...

. The Carlist army commanded by the Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain was defeated by the Baron of Meer, general-in-chief of the military region of Catalonia. The Carlist army had previously left

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

with the Carlist pretender of the crown, Carlos María Isidro de Borbón (the "Royal Expedition").

Alumni

Pedro Fages Beleta ( Catalan: ''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 (, ), also known as Nueva 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 was made a separat ...

) from 1770 to 1774, and governor of Las Californias from 1782 to 1791.

Main sights

* Remains of the Medieval

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with t ...

s, including one of the gates. * ''La Plaça Major'' (

Town square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Relat ...

), a square surrounded by arcades. * ''Església de Santa Maria'' (Saint Mary's Church) with

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 raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

and art objects (paintings and sculpture.) * "''Obra de Fluvià''", the ruins of the unfinished Episcopal palace built in the 16th century. Late Gothic 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 Episcopal 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