Lerida

Lerida, a town of Spain, capital of the province of Lerida (area, 4762 sq. m.; pop. 285,417 in 1887, having decreased from 314,530 in 1860), on a tributary of the Ebro, 114 miles by rail W. by N. of Barcelona. The second city of Catalonia, Lerida has a castle and two cathedral churches, one an ancient Byzantino-Moorish edifice, now used as a barracks, the other a modern Græco-Roman building. It carries on manufactures of woollens, cottons, leather, paper, and glass. Pop. (1877) 20,369; (1884) 17,672. Near Lerida, the Celtiberian Ilerda, Scipio Africanus defeated Hannō (216 B.C.) and Cæsar, the lieutenants of Pompey (49 B.C.). The Goths made it a bishop's see and held here a council of the church in the 6th century. In 1300 a university was founded here; it is now extinct. The town has been several times besieged, on the last occasion by the French in 1810.