Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1060
Some 200 years before the Magna Carta, Count Ramon Berenguer I approves the
'Usatges de Barcelona', a bill of rights establishing all free men equal before the law.
1137
Count Ramon Berenguer IV is betrothed to one-year-old Petronilla, daughter of the
king of Aragón, creating a new combined state that would be known as the Corona de
Aragón.
1225-29
At age 18 Jaume I takes command; four years later he conquers Muslim-held Mal-
lorca, the first of several dazzling conquests that lead him to be called El Conqueridor
(the Conqueror).
1283
The Corts Catalanes, a legislative council for Catalonia, meets for the first time and
begins to curtail unlimited powers of sovereigns in favour of nobles and the powerful
trading class.
1323
Catalan forces land in Sardinia and launch a campaign of conquest that would only
end in 1409. Their fiercest enemy was Eleonora de Arborea, a Sardinian Joan of Arc.
1348
Plague devastates Barcelona. Over 25% of the city's population dies. Further waves of
the Black Death, a plague of locusts in 1358 and an earthquake in 1373 deal further
blows.
1383
After 50 or so years of frenzied construction the massive Santa Maria del Mar rises
above the Ribera. It is one of many Gothic architectural gems completed in the 14th
century.
1387
