TORTOSA, a fortified city of Spain, in the province of Tar ragona; 4o m. by rail W.S.W. of Tarragona, on the Ebro 22 m. above its mouth. Pop. (1930), 35,865. Tortosa, the Dertosa of Strabo and the Colonia Julia Augusta Dertosa of numerous coins, was a city of the Ilercaones in Hispania Tarraconensis. Under the Moors it was of importance as the key of the Ebro valley. It was taken by Louis the Pious in 811, but was soon recaptured. Having become a haunt of pirates, it was made the object of a crusade proclaimed by Pope Eugenius III. in 1148, and was captured by Ramon Berenguer IV., count of Barcelona, assisted by Templars, Pisans and Genoese. An attempt to recapture the city in 1149 was defeated by the women folk, who thenceforth received many privileges. Tortosa fell to the duke of Orleans in 1708; during the Peninsular war it surrendered in 1811 to the French under Suchet, who held it till 1814. Tortosa is a walled
town with crooked and ill-paved streets, and lofty, granite-built houses. There is a modern suburb on the opposite side of the Ebro. The cathedral occupies the site of a Moorish mosque built in 914. The present structure (1347), has its Gothic character disguised by a classical facade with Ionic pillars. There are manu factures of paper, hats, leather, ropes, porcelain, majolica, soap, spirits and ornaments made of palm leaves and grasses. The river fisheries are important. Corn, wine, oil, wool, silk, fruits and liquorice (a specialty of the district) are exported. The city is connected with Barcelona and Valencia by the coast rail way, and with Saragossa by the Ebro valley line; it is also the terminus of a railway to San Carlos de la Rapita.