Montblanc (Tarragona)

Montblanc municipality
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Catalonia
Province :	Tarragona
Comarca :	Conca de Barberà
Coordinates	41 ° 23 ′ N , 1 ° 10 ′ E Coordinates: 41 ° 23 ′ N , 1 ° 10 ′ E
Height :	350 msnm
Area :	91 km²
Residents :	7,364 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	80.92 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	43400
Municipality number ( INE ):	43086
administration
Official language :	Castilian , Catalan
Mayor :	Josep Andreu i Domingo
Website :	www.montblanc.cat
Location of the municipality

Montblanc is a Catalan city in the province of Tarragona in northeastern Spain . It is the capital of the Comarca Conca de Barberà . The medieval city center has been a listed building since 1947 . It is surrounded by an almost completely preserved city wall with originally 31 towers and 5 gates.

Geographical location

The city is located about 30 kilometers north of Tarragona in the south of the Comarque near the confluence of the Anguera in the Francolí . The old town is about 350 m above sea level, but the highest point in the district is the Mola d'Estat in the Prades mountains at 1,126 m.

The city is on the A-2 motorway from Barcelona to Saragossa and on the N-240 national road between Tarragona and Lleida . It has a train station on the line from Barcelona to Lleida.

Sub-locations

La Guàrdia dels Prats (~ 150 inhabitants) - Lilla (~ 80 E.) - Montblanc (~ 6.340 E.) - El Pinetell de Rojals (~ 10 E.) - Prenafeta (~ 20 E.) - Rojals (~ 30 E.) .)

Origin of the place name

The city owes its name to the hill in the middle of the old town, which is now called Pla de Santa Bàrbara . This hill (" mont ") was bare and "bare" (" albis " in medieval Catalan ). The place was first named Montis Albis , later Montblanc .

history

Stone Age drawings and other remains of settlements were found in a total of eleven locations in the surrounding mountainous region . They are part of the world cultural heritage “ Prehistoric rock paintings in Eastern Spain ”.

Between the fourth and second centuries BC there was an Iberian settlement on Pla de Santa Bàrbara in what is now the city center . Remains of Roman country estates ( villa rustica ) from the following centuries were also found. A settlement called Duesaigües at the confluence of Anguera and Francolí is known for the beginning of the 11th century .

After the last rulership of the Taifa Kingdom in Catalonia was recaptured in 1153 with the Waliat (= viceroyalty) Siurana , Raimund Berengar IV promoted the repopulation of this area with tax exemptions for some settlements, including Duesaigües .

Frequent floods and the need for a fortified city between Tarragona and Lleida prompted King Alfonso I to move the settlement to a nearby hill. This is how today's Montblanc was founded in February 1163.

The city grew rapidly. In 1170 a castle and a Romanesque St. Mary's Church already existed on the hill . Thanks to the market rights obtained, the importance of the city continued to grow in the 13th century. Peter the Great of Aragon made Montblanc the capital of a vegueria , a supra-local administrative unit, and a “royal office” and a university (“ Estudi Major ”) were founded. During this time, buildings such as the Church of Sant Miquel , various monasteries, today's town hall ( Casa de la Vila ) and the royal palace were built.

In 1287 Montblanc was one of five cities to have its own coat of arms. The remaining four were Barcelona , Huesca , Lleida and Cervera .

The city reached its greatest importance in the 14th century. As the seventh largest city in Catalonia, it also had economic strength. King Joan I awarded his brother (and future king) Martin I the title of Duke of Montblanc .

In Montblanc, the Corts Catalanes (representatives of the state) met several times:

1307 under Jaume II
1333 under Alfons III .
1370-71 under Pere III .
1414 under Ferran I .
In 1640 Felip III convened the Corts, but they were no longer held

In 1410 the General de Catalunya Parliament met in Montblanc.

Towards the end of the 15th century, Montblanc began a period of decline. A series of bad harvests , epidemics and the Catalan Civil War (1462–1472) ended the rise of the ducal city ( Vila Ducal ). The city walls and many buildings and bridges were damaged.

Church of Santa Maria

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city began to recover. But the Catalan uprising meant a hard blow to the population. Parts of the city wall were destroyed again, the archives burned and the facade of the Gothic church of Santa Maria shot to pieces by the retreating Castilian troops. The numerous attacks, looting and fires meant that the city finally lost its political and economic importance.

As a result of the War of the Spanish Succession , Montblanc lost many of its privileges, such as the Vegueria of Montblanc , which became a subdistrict of Tarragona. The Napoleonic Wars finished off the city.

The city recovered quickly from the middle of the 19th century. The economic focus was the craft and viticulture. When the traffic connections were also improved (1821 road to Valls , 1843 to Reus ) and especially when the railroad was built in 1863, the population increased significantly. The arcades of Carrer Major were removed and the two city gates at the ends of this street demolished so that the ever larger cars could drive through the city .

This hopeful development was ended by a phylloxera infestation that completely destroyed viticulture. Only towards the middle of the 20th century did dynamic development of the city begin again. In the last few years the limit of 6,500 inhabitants has been exceeded.

Town twinning

Montblanc in the Occitanie region , ( France )

Individual evidence

↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).

Web links

Commons : Montblanc - collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).