 |
|
|
 |
|
|
History of the city |
 |
Some neolithical and eneolithical archaeological findings discovered into the district of Santa Coloma demonstrates us the presence of human groups since, at least, the year 3500 BC. It seems that between the 10th century BC and the 6th one, arrived in the surroundings of the Besos river some migrations proceeding from the northern regions which assembled, few time later, with the establishment of the Iberian tribe of the laietans, settled toward the 6th or the 5th century BC in the Puig Castellar settlement, in the northern border of the actual Santa Coloma. The laietans occupied the coast strip which goes from Sitges to Blanes, and its culture survived until the strong impact produced by the roman conquest (3rd century BC), which supposed the beginning of its progressive extinction. The Puig Castellar settlement was probably abandoned toward beginnings of the 2nd century BC.
Few dates about the population of the settlement in the Roman epoch and in the Visigothic one. It's thought that there were some dispersed towns in the Besos basin, very influenced by big and neighbouring cities: Baetulo (Badalona) and Barcino (Barcelona). Next to the little abandon of the city, which was implied by the Saracen invasion, from the 9th century onward it started the repopulation of the area. The new settler, came from the northern regions, probably knew the Santa Coloma's martyrdom tradition (sacrificed by the Romans in Gaul in the year 274, when she was only seventeen) and it's also probable that they dedicated her the construction of a little pre-Romanic church -a capital found by Joan Vilaseca in the year 1955 could belong to it- that could have been destroyed by Almansor in the years 985. In the same place, a new Romanic temple was built, documented since the year 1019, which subsisted as parochial for more than seven centuries. The construction of houses around this church constituted the formation of the first town, which coexisted with a few ancient country houses, rebuilt in that époque.
In the 11th century, the total population of the town didn't surpass the quantity of 30 homes. By gift of the count Ramon Berenguer I, it was in the grip of the bishop of Barcelona and, since the 13th century, of the Pia Almoina. The town, separated from the principal communication routes, kept its social integrity and a determined prosperity lengthwise of the Middle Ages, although the progressively increase of the importance of the strongest country houses (Torre Balldovina, Torre Pallaresa, …). The majority of the peasants paid the tithes to the Pia Almoina and some of them had tenant farmers and labourers. In the documentation of this ages, it already appears important surnames of the town like the Grony, the Pascali, the Carcereny or the Pallarès. The town was considered a foreign settlement in the Barcelona area, dependant on the Consell de Cent; the population could take refuge in case of emergence and they were obligated to contribute to the construction of the walls (the year 1367 every Santa Coloma's country house had to bring 24 sols.
During the 15th century, the whole country suffered a period of natural catastrophes (epidemics, earthquakes, …), Turkish piracy incursions and interior wars, which disturbed the pacific life of the country villagers and which obligated them to pay burdensome taxes. During the civil war of 1462-1472 that faced the King John II and the Generalitat (Catalan government seat), there were, near the Balldovina Tower, an important battle (26th of November 1471). In accordance to the chronicle, the prince Fernando, son of John II, had as prisoners thirty horsemen in the tower. To free them, the Generalitat sent 150 riders with 4.000 men on foot, which were severely beaten, prelude of the definitive capitulation that, a year later, put an end to the war.
Santa Coloma, because of its relative isolation and its physical configuration suffered a little less the effects of the several grievous disasters which affected the country. For this reason, the virulent pest epidemics of the 16th century , which provoked an important loss of population and the abandon of lots of country houses, didn't have too much consequences in Santa Coloma, that kept its census stable around 30 or 40 houses, and in some occasions was used as a refuge of patricians and dignitaries from Barcelona (the year 1589 the Consolat del Mar took refuge there).
Until the end of the Succession War (the year 1714) the population of the town didn't start to increase quickly (144 inhabitants in 1718, 731 in 1787), at the same time that agriculture, basically based in cereals, vineyard, garden produce and hemp. The population nucleus started to become extensive at the same time the population augmented and the ancient Romanic church was substituted by a new baroque temple.
The 19th century started with two tragical events. A flood of the Besos river, the besossat of 1803, provoked great damages to the cultivations, and in 1808, during the War of the French, French soldiers assailed Santa Coloma (22 of September, 1808) in which Milans del Bosch, with only 600 men, defeated more than 2.200 French, and then, in the St. Jeroni Battle, the Napoleonic troops bate Milans del Bosch forces , and sacked the town provoking great damages. The havocs of the war, the political instability of Fernando VII reign and the epidemics caused misery, hunger and an important diminution of population. About a middle of the century, got started a process of industrialization of the town, based in textile industry and a positive demographic evolution, reinforced with the arrival of the first immigrants, and during these years is when the urban drawing of the first urban enlargement, with new and numerous constructions of summer residents, got configured.
In 1913, it started the construction of the bridge over Besos river , very important in the communication with Barcelona for Sant Andreu, and the new church of Santa Coloma. The town continued augmenting during the first half of the 20th century, and it reached the number of 15.281 inhabitants, in 1950, a number that ten years later was duplicated. During the decades of the sixties and the seventies the immigration reached enormous proportions and the census passed from 32.000 to 140.000 inhabitants in only twenty years, most of them proceeding from Andalusia and Extremadura. This phenomenon provoked the apparition of new quarters distributed for all over the municipal territory, characterized by its chaotic urbanism, consequence of the speculation and the improvisation. When democracy arrived, it started a period of straightening and transformation that has endowed the city of all kind of services and it has improved the communications , overcoat with the construction of new bridges over Besos river and the arrival of the Underground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
