Tamarite de Litera

Human settlement in the area around Tamarite de Litera almost certainly predates written records — archaeological sites nearby point to an Iberian population, specifically the Ilergetes, before Roman occupation swept through. After Rome's decline, the town passed to the Visigoths and then to Muslim control in 714.

The Reconquista brought repeated changes of hand. Sancho Ramírez took the town in 1064 but held it for only two years. Alfonso I "El Batallador" captured it again in 1107, keeping it until 1134. It was finally returned to Aragón for good in 1149 by Pedro de Estopiñán.

Through the medieval period Tamarite grew into one of the more significant towns of the Kingdom of Aragón, hosting the Aragonese Cortes in 1375. A session planned for 1382–84 was moved here from Monzón because of the Black Death, then moved on again within days when plague appeared in Tamarite itself. In 1408, King Martín I "El Humano" granted the town the title of city by royal charter.

The town's position near the shifting Aragón-Catalonia boundary brought repeated administrative turbulence. Jaime I's will would have transferred it to Catalonia; that arrangement collapsed after his heir Alfonso died, and Jaime II later fixed the boundary at the Clamor de Almacellas. Franco-Catalan troops destroyed much of the town during the Catalan revolt in the mid-17th century, and it was repopulated from both Upper Aragón and nearby Catalonia. The Spanish War of Succession finally settled the border question, placing Tamarite within the corregimiento of Barbastro and eventually within the province of Huesca after the territorial reorganisation of 1833. Its ecclesiastical ties, however, remained with the bishopric of Lleida until the late 20th century.

A royal decree in 1834 authorised the construction of an irrigation canal drawing water from the Ésera and Cinca rivers, originally intended to terminate at Tamarite but extended to irrigate land in Catalonia and renamed the Canal de Aragón y Cataluña. Driven forward by the politician Joaquín Costa, it finally brought water to the impoverished comarca of La Litera in 1906.

During the Civil War, Tamarite fell in Republican territory. The town saw collectivisation and libertarian administration, and Francoist aircraft bombed it periodically, damaging the church of Santa María la Mayor. No major battle was fought here, though Francoist forces occupied the town in 1938 during the Aragón offensive, after Republican troops around Siétamo were defeated.