Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Ermengol

Balaguer was conquered from the Moors by Ermengol VI of Urgell in 1106. He made it his new capital, and it remained so for subsequent counts of Urgell. In 1189 Ermengol VIII signed a document granting land for the construction of a new church, this church no longer exists. Santa Maria is younger. The construction process is unknown, but the bell tower seems to have been completed in 1392. There was a meeting in the building in 1413 presided over by Count Jaume II of Aragon. In the middle of the 16th century, the final impetus was given to complete the work. Santa Maria was consecrated in 1558.

The monastery was originally founded in 1166 by the Counts of L'Urgell. The monastery became the most important Premonstratensian community in Catalonia. Always under the protection of the Earls of Urgell, he held important holdings that stretched across the region. The activity in the monastery ended with its confiscation in 1835. It passed into private hands. One of its owners sold the surviving sarcophagi of Counts Ermengol VII and his wife Dolça, Ermengol X, and the Vicomte Àlvar de Cabrera, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ("The Cloisters") in New York. However, the cloister of the original 12th-century monastery has been preserved.