Guissona is a town and municipality located in the North of the comarca of Segarra, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. With 6,862 inhabitants Guissona is the principal municipality in the Northern half of Segarra and the second most populated in the county after Cervera. In addition to the populated place of Guissona, the municipality integrates the smaller place of Guarda-si-venes. 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. Such development has run parallel to a fast demographic growth, especially intensified during the last decade. As a consequence, the municipality accounts for the highest percentage of immigrant population registered in the whole province.
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. Iesso was located in the Northern area of the present town. 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. These date from the late 2nd to the early 1st century BC The Romans conquered Iesso to transform it into a municipality. The town is mentioned by the Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy. During that period it was built a defensive wall that surrounded a more extensive surface than the present historic center. The remains of the Roman period are numerous, notably, the Roman thermae 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 sculpture of a Roman horseman, and the Necropolis located in the area of Cal Mines. Guissona probably housed the episcopal see until it was moved to La Seu d'Urgell as a consequence of the Muslin invasion of the area. In 975 AD the Christian Borrell II, Count of Barcelona conquered the town, although the Caliphate of Córdoba would conquer it back in 1015. By 1024, Guissona was recaptured and a rechristianization was instituted by Ermengol, bishop of Urgell. In 1072, the Count Ermengol IV of Urgell started the construction of a Romanesque church named Església de Santa Maria de Guissona. Several centuries later, the church would be 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 and Neoclassical styles. During the Spanish Civil Warthe organ and all the retables were destroyed. In 1505 started the construction of Obra de Fluvià 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 kilometer away in the Northeast, nearby the confluence between 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 with a central courtyard. The Diocese of Urgell also founded an Augustinian monastery, transformed into a secular collegiate church 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 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 with the Carlist pretender of the crownCarlos María Isidro de Borbón.
Església de Santa Maria with Baroque and Neoclassical architectonic elements.
Municipal Museum, housing a collection of artifacts of archeological interest, pottery and art objects
“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.
