Puigcerdà

Puigcerdà stands above the Cerdanya basin in the eastern Pyrenees. The Crown of Aragon developed it as a fortified centre and capital of Cerdanya, granting privileges to encourage settlement. By the fourteenth century it had become a substantial Catalan town. Its merchants dealt in grain, livestock and cloth, connecting the mountain basin with other centres; some livestock reached Barcelona and cloth came from towns north of the Pyrenees. Repeated fires, including those of 1379 and 1389, damaged the town. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries banditry and the expense of fortifications and quartered troops added to its troubles. War between France and Spain brought sieges, while the settlement following the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659–1660 divided Cerdanya and placed the new frontier close to Puigcerdà. The town council had already discussed the consequences of dividing the county in 1659. Although the border changed political authority, the basin's communities remained linked by geography and long-established routes.