Lérida (Catalan Lleida) is chief town of its province and the largest city in western Catalonia, the Terres de Ponent. It lies on the Río Segre, half way between Barcelona and Zaragoza, in one of Spain's leading agricultural regions, made fertile by irrigation. Lérida has been the see of a bishop since
1149, and from 1300 to 1717 it had a university, the first in Catalonia, founded by King Jaime II. It is now a marketing center for agricultural produce.
History
Lérida was originally an Iberian foundation, which became Roman in the second Century B.C. under the name of Ilerda. During the Roman civil war the armies of Caesar and Pompey met here. Between 713 and 1117 the town was under Moorish rule for most of the time; then in 1149 it was taken by Ramón Berenguer IV. In later centuries it suffered repeated destruction in successive wars - in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1810 during a siege by the French, in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.
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