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3.2. The Route
of the Medinas
The axis formed
by the rivers Segre-Cinca-Ebre gives structure to this territory through a dual concept
that is omnipresent here: the city and the urban market garden. Each of these watercourses
have, in their middle and lower reaches, one or more cities that assured the control
of territories from which high economic performance was extracted.
Thus, the Segre has
the towns of Balaguer (Balagí) and Lleida (Lârida), while on the Cinca,
also known as the River of the Olive groves (Nahr az-zaitún), we find places
like Monzón (Munt Shún) and Fraga (Ifraga). The Ebre, finally, has
important fortifications in the zone that concerns us, which would progressively
become cities, like Mequinensa (Miknása), and a great city like Tortosa (Tartusha)
which controls both the final stretch of the river and the coastal area.
Life in the Islamic cities on the frontier (10th-12th centuries), as well as the
agricultural activity that was found at the root of their existence, on one hand,
and the evolution of the Muslim communities that lived under Christian domination
(Mudeixars and Moriscos) until the moment of the expulsion (beginning of the 17th
century), on the other, constitute the two thematic poles of this route.
This is the area where the cultural and artistic splendour of the Andalusian society
of the frontier materialised. Here we find things ranging from vestiges of the splendid
Taifa palaces to the fine creations of the local craftsmen, without belittling the
developed urbanism or the simple comfort of houses invariably organised around a
central patio, in the middle of which we always find a well.
| The monuments to visit
are the following: |
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1. Balaguer
a. Museum of La Noguera (starting point)
b. Historic quarter
c. Pla d'Almatà
d. Castle Formós
 
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2. Lleida
a. La Suda
b. La Seu Vella (Cathedral) (Anunciata door and the door of the Palls)
c. Diocesan and District Museum (chess set from Àger)
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3. Seròs
a. Monastery of Avinganya
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4. Fraga
a. Historic quarter
b. Ceramics workshop
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5. Mequinensa
a. Castle
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6. Ascó
a. Ancient quarter
Complementary
option: Castle of Siurana
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7. Miravet
a. Castle
b. Ceramics workshop
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8. Xerta
a. Assud
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9. Tortosa
a. Suda
b. Treasures of the Cathedral
c. Archive-Museum
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