LERIDA, the capital of the Spanish province of Lerida, on the river Segre and the Barcelona-Saragossa and Lerida-Tarragona railways. Pop. (1930) 38,868. Lerida is the Ilerda of the Romans, and was the capital of the people whom they called Ilerdenses (Pliny) or Ilergetes (Ptolemy). By situation the key of Catalonia and Aragon, it was from a very early period an important military station. In the Punic Wars it sided with the Carthaginians and suffered much from the Romans. Here Hanno was defeated by Scipio in 216 B.C., and here Caesar struggled with Pompey's gen erals Afranius and Petreius in the first year of the civil war (49 B.c.). It was already a municipium in the time of Augustus, and enjoyed great prosperity under later emperors. Under the Visi goths it became an episcopal see. Under the Moors Lareda became one of the principal cities of the province of Saragossa ; it became tributary to the Franks in 793, but was reconquered in 797. In
1149 it fell into the hands of Ramon Berenguer IV. In modern times it has come through numerous sieges, having been taken by the French in 1707 and again in 181o. The older parts of the city, on the right bank of the river, are a maze of narrow and crooked streets, surrounded by ruined walls and a moat, and commanded by the ancient citadel. On the left bank, connected with the older quarters by a fine stone bridge and an iron railway bridge, are the suburbs, laid out after 188o in broad and regular avenues of modern houses. The old cathedral, last used for public worship in 1707, is a very interesting late Romanesque building, with Gothic and Mauresque additions. The Romanesque town hall, founded in the 13th century has been several times restored. Leather, paper, glass, silk, linen and cloth are manufactured.