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Castle of La Suda or the King's Castle
Lleida in Spain
View of the castle ruins in 2012
Site history
In use	Late 11th century – 19th century
Events	Battles and sieges of Lleida

The Castle of La Suda, also known as the Castell del Rei , is a fortress overlooking the city of Lleida, Spain. The currently visible Romanesque-Gothic complex, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, when it was used as a royal palace, was built over a 9th-century kasbah andalusí. By the main entrance to the fortified complex, the Puerta del León , are the remains of the Roman wall dating to before 26-16 BC. Successive walls were built over and along it in the 9th to 10th centuries, the 14th century and in the 19th century.

The Court session held there in 1214 is notable for being the occasion on which James I of Aragon, then aged six, was recognised by the Catalans and the Aragonese and crowned King of Aragón. The signing of the Querimonia, by which James II of Aragon granted autonomy to the Aran Valley in 1313, and the Paréages of Andorra (1278 and 1288), which codified the joint sovereignty over the territory of Andorra, also took place at the palace.

Although the castle-palace was declared a national monument in 1931, it continued to be used as a military facility until its demilitarisation in 1941. The palace had been used as a military headquarters during the Reapers' War and remained as such until it was demilitarised. During the War of the Spanish Succession, an explosion in the arsenal destroyed most of the original castle.

It shares the hill with the Old Cathedral of Lleida, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1203, following conquest of the Muslim city of Larida in 1149 by the Catalan counts Ramón Berenguer IV and Ermengol VI.

On a neighbouring hill, just over a mile away, there is another fortress, the Romanesque 12th-century Gardeny Castle, built by the Knights Templar, and which defends the only accessible side of the castle. In the 19th century, at the time of Suchet's siege, there were also the two strong fortifications of San Fernando and Pilar.

The name Suda, from an Arabic word meaning 'enclosed urban area', refers to the 9th-century Moorish fortress, the city's principlal castle.

Known origins

Occcupying eight hectares, excavations show that the castle had been occupied by the Hudid dynasty between 1046 and 1092.

Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona had, a year prior to the siege, agreed with Ermengol VI, Count of Urgell on how to divide Lleida once captured. Ermengol would hold La Suda in fief and the town itself would be divided between the two counts.

On the other hand, the fort at Gardeny, belonging to Ermengol since capturing it in around 1147, had probably been built by around 1122 under Alfonso the Battler during a previous siege on the town. Berenguer likely stayed there in 1149 during his successful seven-month siege. On capturing Lleida that year, he likely invested Guillem Ramon de Montcada as the castà (castellan) of La Suda.

20th century

Although the castle-palace had been declared a national monument in 1931, it continued to be used as a military facility until its demilitarisation in 1941. There had also been attempts since 1886 to declare the Old Cathedral a national monument but, due to the Carlist Wars, the government was more interested in keeping it as part of the city's defences, and it was not until 1918 that it attained that status, although it was not until several years later that it was demilitarised and restorations works could commence. The first archeological excavations of the castle were carried out in the 1980s.

Sieges

Reconquista

Siege of Lleida (1149)

The castle was besieged by a Catalan army led by Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona from spring to October 1149.

Reapers' War

Siege of Lleida (1644)

War of the Spanish Succession (1707)

Siege of Lérida (1707)

During the siege of Lerida by the Duke of Orleans in 1707, the castle held out for many days after the town had been lost.

Peninsular War

Siege of Lérida (1810)

At the siege of Lérida (29 April to 13 May 1810), an Imperial French army under Louis Gabriel Suchet besieged a Spanish garrison led by Major General García Conde. On 13 May, García Conde surrendered with his 7,000 surviving soldiers. The capitulation was signed on 14 May by Garcia Conde as principal commandant of the "principal castle of the town", and by Francisco Nunes, as commandant of the Fort Garden of Lerida.

Notes

1. The term is also used in the name of the Castle of La Suda, also known as La Suda de Tortosa, in Tortosa, Tarragona.

References

1. ^ (in Spanish). "Castillo del Rey/Suda". Turóseuvella. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
2. (in Spanish). "Muralla Romana". Turóseuvella. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
3. (in Spanish). "Las Cortes". Turóseuvella. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
4. ^ (in Spanish). "Castillo del Rey/Suda: Síntesis histórica" Turóseuvella. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
5. (in Spanish). "Seu Vella: Síntesis Histórica". Turóseuvella. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
6. Thiers, Adolphe (1883). History of the consulate and the empire of France under Napoleon, Volume 3, pp. 417-419. Claxton. Google Books. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
7. Arnold Felix (2017). Islamic Palace Architecture in the Western Mediterranean: A History, p. 144 (Table 3.1). Google Books. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
8. ^ Jaspert, Nikolas (2021). "Chapter 2. Bonds and Tensions on the Frontier: the Templars in Twelfth-Century Western Catalonia". IN: Sarnowsky, Jürgen. Mendicants, Military Orders, and Regionalism in Medieval Europe (online edition). Taylor & Francis. Google Books. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
9. (in Spanish). Remesal Rodríguez, José; Antonio Aguilera; Lluís Pons (2000). Comisión de Antigüedades de la Real Academia de la Historia catálogo e índices. Cataluña, Real Academia de la Historia (Spain). Comisión de Antigüedades, pp. 67-68. Google Books. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
10. ^ Oman, Charles (1908). A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. III, pp. 300–308. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
11. The Present State of Europe, Volume 18, 1707, pp. 536-538. H. Rhodes. Google Books. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
12. Suchet, Louis-Gabriel (1829). Memoirs of the War in Spain, from 1808 to 1814, Volume 1, p. 360. H. Colburn. Google Books. Retrieved 11 January 2025.

• Castles in Catalonia
• Lleida
• Roman sites in Catalonia
• Spanish Civil War sites