Montargull is a scattered village aggregated to the municipality of Artesa de Segre, at La Noguera county, in Catalonia, Spain. It is located at the highway that goes from Artesa de Segre to the Pallars Jussà county. It got its name due to its location on a hill marking the end of the Serra de Comiols, and the start of a plain known by the same name of the village. On this plain there are crops of wheat and barley, favored by a fairly arid mediterranean weather mildened by the proximity of the mountains. The climate is typical from the mid Segre, with orographic features similar to the Central Depression of Catalonia.
Its history is associated with the history of the Montmagastre barony. In the Middle Ages this barony is merged with the municipality of Anya and, during the 20th century, to the municipality of Artesa de Segre. According to the 2013 Census there were only 43 inhabitants, including the masias of the district. Several vacation homes can be found in the village. Some interesting buildings and landmarks can be found at the district, such as the Santa Maria de Montargull church, nowadays in ruins, prehistorical megaliths and medieval tombs. The building of the old school, closed during the 1960s as a consequence of a school concentration policy of the time, is also preserved. From the upper town a complete view of the Montargull plain can be enjoyed.
Toponymy The toponymy Montargull, is a hybrid word, with the agglutination of a first part, "mont", coming from the Latin word "mon, montis" which means mountain, and a second part about which there are several theories. A first theory claims that it comes from "argull", deriving from "Hercules" and therefore "mountain of Hercules". A second theory proposes that it corresponds to "ergull", that is "superb", and it would mean "superb mountain" A last theory proposes that "argull" comes from the Arabic خخروف, «arhúl», meaning sheep, and this would imply "sheep mountain", a world to call those places where herds in transhumance would find grazing on their trip to the Pyrenees.
Geography The village is located at a sector known as the Mid Segre, characterized by not too steep rocks and lands which are similar to the Central Depression. At the foot of the hill where the village is located there is a wide and welcoming valley, belonging to the erosion plains created by the Segre river and its affluents. This allows for a large variety of crops, and in older times there were orchard trips near to the rivers and creeks.
Montargull and the surrounding district have a climate similar to the Segrià, a Mediterranean climate tending to arid, partially mildened by the proximity of the mountains. Mean temperatures at December and January are between and , while during July and August mean temperature is larger than . Precipitations amount to about 500 mm annually and 130 mm during summer.
The village is constructed over a hill located between the gorges of Montargull and Les Pletes. It marks the end of the Serra de Comiols mountain range and the beginning of the Montargull valley. It is located at the margin of the L-512 highway going from Artesa de Segre to Tremp, and through the Comiols pass. Montargull's district limits north with the Montamagastre and Comiols districts, east with Anya, south again with Montmagastre and west with Vall-llebrera. At the foot of the Montargull gorge the Montargull creek can be found, which later joins the Tòrrec creek and both drain to the Segre.
The original vegetation is formed mainly by oak trees, alternating with thickets of kermes oaks and black hawthorns. There are also thickets of restharrows and Gypsophila struthium. This primitive vegetation has been substituted since there is human presence by crops and by the planting of pine-trees. The main crops are wheat and barley. There are also pork and chicken farms. There is also partridges, wild rabbits and hares hunting.
History
Prehistory and old age
Despite the fact that there is no direct evidence at Montargull, it is most likely that there was disperse neolithic population. All around the Montsec it is very common to find stone axes, sinks and wedges, and fairly close to Montargull, the "Roureda de Vernet", a place was found where these tools were built, corresponding to the so-called neolithic technique (4500–2500 BCE).
There are also findings in the surroundings from the Bronze Age (2500–1100 BC), like for instance axes collected near Collderat and Tudela, together with ship-shaped mills, collected at the Artesa de Segre Museum collection. Corresponding to the Iberian period (sixth to second century bC), there is the archaeological site of Antona close to Artesa de Segre, as well as graves at several close locations. Right at Montargull two megalithic constructions can be found, and it is uncertain to which culture they belong, but everything seems to show that they should belong to a late prehistoric period.
From the Roman and Visigothic periods there are few vestiges. From the Romans there are several samples all around the district, and it is fairly common to find coins from this era next to Montmagastre.
Middle age The whole county was at the border between the first Catalan counties and the Muslim domination of Catalonia. For instance in 1003 Wadih, a freeman general of Abd-al-Malik, takes control of the Montmagastre fortress (Mumagars) and settles Muslim people there. This domination seems to be short since apparently in 1010 a Catalan expedition departs from this castle towards Córdoba. Once the Muslims start to withdraw, the county starts to be resettled, for instance by Arnau Mir de Tost, who starts the colonization of the lands near to Artesa de Segre in the middle of the eleventh century. In his will he signs various agreements mentioning villages and fortresses around Montargull, such as Montmagastre, Alentorn, Mirandol Vall-llebrera, Grialó, Comiols and Artesa de Segre.
Possibly the first reference in history on Montargull is the confirmation of the possessions of the monastery of Sant Miguel of Montmagastre, by means of a bull signed by Pope Alexander II at Montpellier (Languedoc) in 1162. Between these possessions there was the parish of Montargull. From this moment on and until the end of the Middle Ages the parish remains under the governance of Sant Pere of Ager. There are more references about the village at the end of the Middle Ages, together with other villages, concerning the collection of taxes (delme or onzens), a tax that was started to be collected after the Catalan Courts celebrated at Barcelona in 1365. These taxes were collected to finance the war against Castille. In the proceedings for 1373 for these taxes Montargull is mentioned.
A demographic estimate for the low Middle Ages can be obtained from the hearth taxes that were successively run. Montargull is not mentioned separately from other villages of the county, but the aggregate information can give an idea of the evolution of the population in Montargull. During the 1359–1414 period, for instance, in Anya and Montargull there were 26 fires. During the 1515 hearth tax 60 fires were reported for the whole Anya county, from which 30 belong to the Montmagastre barony, where Montargull was included. As a reference, the total number of fires counted in Artesa de Segre did not arrive to 60.
Some medieval tombs can be found close to the Les Plates ranch, a masia within the district of Montmagastre. It is a funerary monument with medieval slabs.
Modern age
During the sixteenth century, the parish of Sant Mary of Montargull, as well as the whole seniority of Artesa de Segre, gets under the governance of the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey. It is possible that during this period the current building of the old church, nowadays in ruins, was built, since it has a style from the Renaissance or Barroco period.
Coinciding with the Nueva Planta decrees, there is a Royal Cadastre created in 1716, indicating for Anya and Montargull 35 inhabitants. After the War of the Spanish Succession all the villages from the county remained under the jurisdiction of the Corregimiento of Cervera, and Montargull remained under the jurisdiction of the Count of Santa Coloma. By 1785, the seniority of Montargull belonged to Antònia de Gualteró i Queral. There is no demographic data between 1716 and 1785, but the existing data show that the Mid Segre region did not increase its population significantly, in contrast with the Lleida region in general. For instance for Anya population changes from 35 to 22 inhabitants, and for Artesa de Segre from 80 to 100.
Contemporaneous age
Economics and population From the beginning of the twentieth century cereal agriculture started to get spread in the Montargull valley, creating a lot of cereal plantations in substitution of the olive trees that were at the valley before. The Diccionario de Madoz, a very comprehensive atlas prepared during the nineteenth century that surveyed every village in Spain, says that at the middle of the nineteenth century there were 15 houses and the church, with 4 neighbours and 25 people living in the village. The total population reported for the whole district is of 75, with 14 electors and 5 delegates, and 6 recruited soldiers (18 to 24 old boys). There are several rural houses (masia) reported: Cal Vedrunya, Cal Massana, Call Llinàs, Cal Malòs and Cal Janot. The crops mentioned are barley, oats, potatoes, wine and oil. Cattle is also mentioned, with cows, porks and sheep. The only industry mentioned is an olive oil mill, and from here there could come a refrain "Montargull té molt orgull, per l'oli que s'hi cull" ("Montargull has a lot of pride, due to the oil that is collected). According to the Madoz dictionary, another important industry was wood burning for the production of coal, which was prepared both at Montargull and Montmagastre. Coal was being exported to Lleida, Balaguer and Agramunt, and was being sold around the district. Total wealth is reported to be 13,935 reales (as a reference, notice that for Artesa de Segre the Madoz dictionary reports 121,170 reales.)
Another reference to trade in Montargull can be found in trade registers of 1799, at an accounting book maintained by the wool merchants Joan Ricart and his brother Cadascó, lo Sardanet (meaning coming from Cerdanya). Entries in pounds from Barcelona can be found for bacon, hemp seeds, beans, oil, wine and other goods.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century it is possible that the village had some houses in bad shape, as some people travelling along describe it. Also, at the beginning of the twentieth century 60 building and 192 inhabitants in fact (and 209 in law) were reported, according to the Geografia General de Catalunya of Francesc Carreras i Candi.
In 1833, during the First Carlist War, Montargull is attacked by guerrilla Carlist parties together with Anya and Baldomar.
Freeway to Pallars Jussà
Towards 1870 the freeway from Artesa de Segre to Tremp was opened. Before the construction of this freeway, communication between La Noguera and Pallars Jussà was very difficult, according to the description of several travellers. For instance the writer from Mallorca Marià Aguiló i Fuster describes a horse trip around the middle of the nineteenth century to collect folk traditions. During this trip he went downhill from Comiols to Artesa de Segre, passing through Folquer and Montargull.