Cervera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cervera is the capital of the comarca of Segarra, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. The title Conde de Cervera is a courtesy title, formerly part of the Crown of Aragon, that has been revived for Felipe, Prince of Asturias.
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[edit] History
[edit] The town and its medieval origins
In the year 1026, three peasant families built the first settlement in the comarca of Segarra, in those moments it was uninhabited. Later the Barcelona counts committed the ownesses of those lands to those people. With this, the counts wanted to commit their power in the area, so the Segarra was at that time the border between Christian and Muslim territories, creating the first fortress (castrum Cervarie).
Once the Western border was established in Lleida at the year 1149, Cervera grew up quickly in a terraced houses way across the wall. The inhabitants were freed from the feudal people's abuses and with the royal privileges, the town got established more and more as a Confraria (1182), from Consolat (municipal organ) (1202), and from 1267 till the present, as a Paeria. In 1702, the town got the title of city from the king Philip V, people from the town thanked the king this action. The king did that action because in a slightly way during the war and in a stronger way after his victory, local people show their support to the king's politics.
[edit] The university
Charles II, the last Spanish king from the house of Austria, died in 1700, and in his will he designated Philip V as his heir. The new king, with the name of Philip V, was accepted in the kingdom of |Castile, as well as in Crown of Aragon. England, which was at the head of the opposite nations proposed Charles VI as the heir of the Spanish throne and in 1702 a European war started (the War of the Spanish Succession). An appropriate diplomatic intervention could make the Crown of Aragon finally gave support to Charles VI. In Cervera, there were people in favour of both sites.
Once the war was finished, Cervera, which had been destroyed, decided to give support to the ones who were governing (the borbons) and sent two ambassadors to the Courts with the mission to persuade the ministers of Philip V of his absolute support, with the goal to obtain some logical compensation and in one of their 30 requests, they requested one university like the one in the city of Lleida. Philip V, then, built a big university in Cervera and closed the rest (the Nueva Planta decrees). The creation of the university gave an economic impulse to the town, basically (among other reasons) because students lodged in the town.
[edit] Decadence and prosperity
In 1842 the university studies were relocated to Barcelona, which supposed an important economic lose. When the train arrived to the town in 1860 and the improveness of some public services (like the water supply), as well as the location of some industries and of some important wine trade, made an improveness to the local economy. When the Phylloxera arrived, it provocated a lot of people of the wine field go bankrupt, due to it there was a big crisis with the Cervera trade wine, which got a slightly recuperation with the creation of the Sindicat Agrícola (1919).
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