Berga

Sister cities

• Högsby Municipality

History

Berga derives its name from the Bergistani, an Iberian tribe which lived in the area before the Roman conquest. The Bergistani were first subdued by Hannibal in 218 BC. They rebelled twice against the Romans and were twice defeated; after their second uprising, much of the tribe was sold into slavery. Livy mentions their principal town, , which was probably the precursor of the present-day town of Berga. During the eighth century the area was occupied by Muslim forces; according to local tradition, Berga was destroyed during this period, It was subsequently conquered by the Franks and repopulated before 835. Berga Castle is first recorded in a document dating from about 855. During the ninth century, the Country of Berga developed within the County of Cerdanya. It acquired a more independent character in the early tenth century, with Berga as its capital; in 905 it was administered by the viscount Branduí. The town later had its own counts from 988. Textile production had been documented in Berga since the medieval period. Around 1790, Ramon Farguell, known as Maixerí developed the multi-spindle spinning machine known as the berguedana or maixerina. Later versions accommodated up to 120 spindles, and the machine helped establish Berga as one of Catalonia´s leading cotton-manufacturing centres. During the nineteenth century, industrial development expanded along the Llobregat, while the town´s cotton industry experienced its greatest growth after the Spanish Civil War before declining from the 1960s onwards.