Vila-seca
Different remains show that the city was populated during the times of Ancient Rome. The population settled in Vila-seca after the reconquest in 1162 when King Alfonso II of Aragon gave these lands to Ramón de Olzina. Its donation to this family was confirmed by King Peter II of Aragon in 1208.
During the Middle Ages, there was another town known as Vilaseca del Comú, which neighboured Vila-seca as owned by the Olzinas. The former belonged to the Archbishop of Tarragona until 1525, which the unification of the two towns was decreed, created the city of Vila-seca as it is known today.
Vila-seca actively participated in the defense of the port of Salou, gaining on several occasions ownership of it. The port was a strategic military position and an important source of income. For a long time, it was considered the port of all of the people who made up the Comuna del Camp, until King Ferdinand II of Aragon banned its use. Vila-seca then became the main port, leading to the city suffering several attacks from Berber pirates. A watchtower and a defense tower were built to protect the city from corsair attacks.
During the Reapers' War, the city was occupied by troops under King Philip IV of Spain. Many of the city's defenders were executed and both the church and townhall were burnt down. Vila-seca's population also suffered large losses during the Peninsular War.
At the end of the twentieth century, Salou separated from Vila-seca, becoming its own municipality.
Map - Vila-seca
Map
Country - Spain
Flag of Spain |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
EU | Basque language |
CA | Catalan language |
GL | Galician language |
OC | Occitan language |
ES | Spanish language |