Garrigues (comarca) - History

History

The cave paintings at Roca dels Moros, El Cogul, are the most important vestiges of prehistoric settlement in Les Garrigues. A Neolithic tomb has been found at Les Borges Blanques. During the Iberian era, the comarca was settled by the Ilergetians. There is documentation also for Roman summer residences and country villas, particularly in the north, but the Roman influence died out soon after.

The Web site Catalunya en Linia gives the following history of later times:

The territory of Les Garrigues was included in the vegueria, later corregiment (territorial divisions in force before and after 1716, respectively) of Lleida, with the exceptions of L'Albi, Cervià, and L'Espluga Calba, which belonged to the vegueria of Montblanc (after 1716, to the corregiment of Tarragona).

Ecclesiastically it was divided into the dioceses of Tarragona (Cervià, La Pobla de Cèrvoles, El Vilosell, L'Albi, Vinaixa, Tarrès, Fulleda, Els Omellons, L'Espluga Calba and Arbeca) and of Lleida. In 1833 the county was included in the administrative area of Lleida, in the province of the same name.

However, in 1808 the administrative area of Les Borges Blanques was created (recently annexed again to Lleida), and this area essentially served as the basis (with the inclusion of Granyena and the exclusion of Belianes) for a new county called Les Garrigues, created in 1936 by the Government of Catalonia.

The name given to the county also traditionally included the farming communities of the Segrià, especially Maials, Llardecans and Almatret. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the lower part of the county (from Les Borges Blanques and Castelldans to the north) have been considered as traditionally belonging to El Pla d'Urgell; and Vinaixa to the east, as belonging to La Segarra.

In the new territorial divisions drawn up at the end of the 1980s, the municipality of Torregrossa previously pertaining to Les Garrigues was incorporated into the county of El Pla d'Urgell.