The territories that are Catalonia nowadays lived the settlement of many different communities along the history: Phoenicians, Greeks, Visigoths, Romans, Carthaginians, Arabs…
At the beginning of the eighth century the Saracens from the north of Africa crossed Gibraltar strait and quickly occupied nearly all the Iberian Peninsula and arrived nearby the Pirenees.
The French kings, Charlemagne and his son Louis “the Devout”, were aware of the Saracens coming so they settled a new border which followed the Llobregat River, its tributary called Cardener and the Monsec hills. This border was called MARCA HISPÀNICA.
This area was mainly organised in counties which belonged to the king of French. A few years later, a little territory nearby Barcelona and placed in the middle of the Arabs and French was going to be the birth of Catalonian territory.

There is a legend dated from sixteenth century, which tells the birth of Catalonia. According to the legend, Lluís el Pietós dipped his fingers into the blood of his friend Guifré el Pelós who had been injured on a terrible fight. Then, Lluís passed his four bloods wet fingers all over a golden shield which belonged to the Barcelona County. This is our Catalan shield since then.
This legend is still the most popular version of Catalonia’s origin.

In order to defend our land, many castles were built on tenth and eleventh centuries.
Nowadays most of them are ruined or even partially or totally destroyed.
The castles in Segarra region are now just a remaining of what they had been. They have suffered many changes through the years. They have lost their defensive aim towards a residential aim.

Moreover, we did two morning visits to Segarra region to see some of the castles which belonged to the Marca Hispanica and still exist.