Balaguer

Balaguer likely had Iberian or Roman roots — Roman remains have been found and parts of its early fortifications survive — but the town first appears in written records in 864, when monks travelling between Zaragoza and France stopped at a place called Balagium. Arab sources credit Lope Ibn Ahmad with building a fortress here in 877, probably to guard a bridge over the Segre, with a settlement growing up around it to supply the garrison.

The town remained under Moorish control for centuries, resisting several attempts at conquest, before falling to Christian forces around 1100–1105. It then became the seat of the Counts of Urgell, who made the old Moorish fortress — now known as Castell Formós — their residence. After a period of repopulation drawing settlers from as far as Gascony and Languedoc, the town was drawn into the 13th-century conflict between the Aragonese nobility and King James I, and was besieged and taken in 1280. The County of Urgell passed through various hands before Fernando de Antequera brought it definitively into the Aragonese monarchy in 1413.

At the centre of town, the Plaça del Mercadal is a porticoed square that still hosts a market. The Church of Santa María, known as Lo Campanar, was commissioned by Peter IV of Aragon. The Castell Formós was the residence of the Counts of Urgell.

Other landmarks include the Santuario del Santo Cristo, the Dominican monastery of Sant Domènec (dating from the medieval period), and El Palauet de la Muralla.