County of Empúries

The County of Empúries, known in Spanish as Ampurias, was the Catalan coast county, lasting from about 812 to 1402. After the Franks took the country in 785, Empúries with Peralada answered to the counts of Girona until around 813, when Ermenguer received it as a county of his own; he and the first counts were likely of Visigothic blood. Joined to Roussillon in 817, the county broke free for good in 989, when Gausfred's sons split the inheritance, Hugh taking Empúries. One ninth-century count fitted out a fleet strong enough to seize the Balearic Islands, if only briefly. Hugh's dynasty held the coast for three hundred years from Sant Martí d'Empúries and later Castelló, watching Barcelona swallow the other Catalan counties one by one. In 1402 the last count, Hugh VI, sold the county outright, and Empúries merged into the Crown of Aragon, leaving its Greek ruins, its Romanesque churches and the name of the Empordà country behind.