County of Cerdanya

Origins

The high valley of Cerdanya came under Frankish rule around 798 and was organised as a county of the Marca Hispanica, often held with neighbouring Urgell. Sunifred, father of Wilfred the Hairy, held it in the 830s and 840s, and Wilfred himself became count in 870.

Rule and society

From 897 Cerdanya had its own line of counts descended from Wilfred, controlling the valley, Conflent, Berga and Ripoll. The counts were great patrons of the church: Wifred II founded the monastery of Sant Martí del Canigó around 1009, and his brother Oliba became abbot of Ripoll and bishop of Vic. The county lived from mountain herding and Pyrenean trade routes.

Decline and legacy

When Count Bernat Guillem died without heirs in 1117, Cerdanya passed to Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona. It became part of the Crown of Aragon, and in 1659 the Treaty of the Pyrenees split the valley between Spain and France.