Lleida, our hometown

By Meritxell Aluja

Lleida is a small town located in the west of Catalonia and about 140.000 people live there. It is so close to the mountains, but sea is just an hour away.  The climate here is extreme; the minimum temperature this year has been -5ºC and the highest last summer was 40ºC.  Lleida’s winter has a clear trademark, the fog, this year, in December it was foggy for 26 days

This town has had different names throughout the history depending on the people that were living there in that moment. It was called Iltirta by the Iberians, Ilerda by the Romans, Lerita by the Visigoths, Larida by the Moors and finally in the Middle ages it was called Leyda which ended up in Lleida. As you can see, many different communities have lived in Lleida and because of this the city offers a big variety of archeological rests and places to visit.

The most important monument is a cathedral called "La seu vella" which can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. This historical landmark is on the top of a hill and it was built in the 13th century following the contemporary Romanesque architectural canons. Furthermore, in the cathedral, after the Moors had left the city, was celebrated the wedding of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronella of Aragon who were the kings of the crown of Aragon, one of the most important in the Middle Ages.

In Lleida you can visit different museums, the Champs Elysees which is an urban park by the river Segre, the city hall, discover more about the Templars in the Templar castle and a lot more.

A typical dish of Lleida is “Snails with allioli” and some people, when it rains, go to hunt them.

The Catalan which is spoken in Lleida is a bit different from the rest and it's called North-Western Catalan because apart of pronunciation, there are some distinctive words that only inhabitants of Lleida use.