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The Crusade of Barbastro

Barbastro, Somontano de Barbastro, Huesca

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The Crusade of Barbastro

Historical milestone · Barbastro, Somontano de Barbastro, Huesca

Image of Barbastro, not of the place itself.

The Crusade of Barbastro, or Siege of Barbastro, was an international expedition sanctioned by Pope Alexander II to seize the city from the Muslims; it was made up mainly of Franks and Burgundians, together with an Italo-Norman papal contingent and troops from the armies of Barcelona, Urgell and Aragon, the latter led by the future king Sancho Ramírez, as well as Duke William VIII of Aquitaine, who crossed the Pyrenees via Somport. After the siege, the city, then part of the Taifa of Lleida, fell in 1064 without receiving reinforcements and was pitilessly sacked. The following year the Muslims recovered it in a counterattack that wiped out the small Christian garrison. Because of its international scope it is considered a prelude to the crusades of the following two centuries.

1064

Photo: McBodes (CC BY 3.0)

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