Village
La Seu d'Urgell is the capital of the Alt Urgell and seat of the diocese of Urgell, whose cathedral, the only Romanesque one in Catalonia, presides over the city. Located at the confluence of the rivers Segre and Valira, it is the most populous town in the district and acts as a natural gateway to Andorra, whose economic weight fuels much of its prosperity. The pre-Roman toponym Urgell also gave its name to the ancient county of Urgell, whose capital it was, and to the Urgellet, a Pyrenean district of sixteen municipalities. On the hill of Castellciutat stood the Iberian settlement of Arse-Durgui; after its destruction an episcopal quarter known as the vicus Sedes Urgelli was created, the origin of the city's name. Saint Ermengol, patron of the diocese, is honoured with one of the oldest fairs in Catalonia.
Monument
The cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell is the only entirely Romanesque one in Catalonia, considered a unique example for its Italianate features, visible above all in the ornamentation of the façade and in the open gallery of the east end. The present church, from the 12th century, is presided over by the Mare de Déu d'Urgell, patron saint of the city, a polychrome carving from the 13th century placed in the apsidiole of the high altar and restored in 1922; tradition also calls her the Virgin of Andorra, for having remained hidden there during the Saracen invasion. It is the fourth cathedral built in the diocese and the third erected on the same site; around it grew the quarter that Latin documents called vicus Sedes Urgelli, the origin of the city's name.
Monument
The Citadel of Castellciutat stands at 777 metres above sea level, south of the village of Castellciutat, in the municipality of la Seu d'Urgell, from where it dominates both the village and the whole Urgell plain. It was built in the early 18th century on the site previously occupied by the Torre Blanca, one of the five towers of the old castle of Ciutat, and took the form of two half-bastions flanked by a hexagonal tower. It was home to some 800 men of the Arapiles 62 Mountain Chasseurs Regiment, until it closed in 1993 and was handed over to the municipality; three years later it housed the hospitality school. An urban improvement plan today envisages developing part of the old military precinct.
Monument
Isolated defense tower, an outpost of the castle of Castellciutat, on a hill about 750 meters to its northeast; it forms part of a 13th-14th-century defensive complex, completely renovated in the 17th. Rectangular in plan, wider than it is tall, with an interior vault, it played a notable role in the defense of the city in 1714 and during the Carlist Wars. Today it is in ruins, partly restored by the Escola Taller de la Seu; it has been a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's top heritage-protection category) since 1988.
Nature
The Segre Olympic Park was built in la Seu d'Urgell (Alt Urgell) to host the slalom canoeing events of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. Beside the river Segre, an artificial channel 800 metres long branches into two whitewater channels totalling 500 metres, with a drop of 6.5 metres and a flow of up to 15 cubic metres per second; a reversible mini hydroelectric plant generates electricity and, in times of drought, guarantees the necessary flow, while a system of mechanical boat lifts spares athletes from having to get out of their craft to carry it back upstream. Besides the slalom competitions, the site is used for adventure tourism, with activities such as rafting, hydrospeeding or mountain biking.
Activity
Festa Major of the capital of the Alt Urgell, an episcopal see and the gateway to Andorra.
Historical milestone
The pareatges signed in 1278 and on 6 December 1288 between the bishop of Urgell Pere d'Urtx and count Roger Bernat III of Foix divided the sovereignty over the valleys of Andorra. From that medieval pact is born the co-principality that is still in force today.
Historical milestone
Ermengol directed the diocese of Urgell between 1010 and 1035 and promoted a programme of public works with bridges and roads that opened the city to trade. He is the local patron and gives his name to the October fair, documented since medieval times.
Historical milestone
After the capture of la Seu d'Urgell by Antonio Marañón, El Trapense, in July 1822, royalists opposed to the constitutional regime set up here, on 15 August, an alternative government presided over by Archbishop Jaume Creus, with the Marqués de Mataflorida as the true soul of the body and the Barón de Eroles tasked with turning the guerrilla bands into an organized army, a task that proved impossible. There was little agreement among its members: while Ferdinand VII was being proclaimed absolute king, the Barón de Eroles was independently calling for a cortes that would moderate royal power. General Espoz y Mina, appointed captain general of Catalonia, occupied the city on 11 November 1822, and the Regency moved to Llívia and then to France, where its members went their separate ways.
Historical milestone
The city and the fortress that dominates it were a key piece of the Pyrenees during the Carlist wars of the nineteenth century. The stronghold held out until its surrender in 1875, at the end of the Third Carlist War, closing more than forty years of intermittent conflict.
Food and drink
Formatge de l'Alt Urgell i la Cerdanya is a Catalan cheese made from pasteurized whole Friesian cow's milk, produced in La Seu d'Urgell by the Cooperativa Lletera del Cadí, founded in 1915, under the name Urgèlia, with milk from the Alt Urgell and the Baixa Cerdanya. It is the only cheese in Catalonia with a protected designation of origin, the fruit of the development of the Pyrenean dairy industry in the first half of the 20th century. It is a soft-paste cheese, with a maximum maturing period of one month; its interior shows small eyes and an ivory colour, and the rind is orange in tone. It has a flat, cylindrical shape, a wide diameter and little height, with a weight not exceeding two kilos, and it is made only with cow's milk, animal rennet, lactic ferments and salt.
Food and drink
Butter made from cow's milk exclusively of the Friesian breed, sourced from farms in the Cerdanya and the Alt Urgell, at the factory the Cooperativa Lletera del Cadí has in the centre of la Seu d'Urgell, the same one that produces the county's cheese. Commercial production began in 1915, when the Cooperativa del Cadí was formed, and the ripening time of the cream, together with the cows' feed and the region's climate, gives it its characteristic smell and flavour. Pale yellow in colour and unctuous in texture, it is one of the few butters in Europe recognized with a protected designation of origin.
Activity
Part of the thousand-year-old Fira de Sant Ermengol on the third weekend of October, it brings together more than 150 varieties of artisan cheese from Catalonia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Navarre and Occitania, with guided tastings and direct sales by the makers.