Kingdom of Aragon

Here is the story of how a marriage in 1137 turned this Mediterranean port into the heart of an empire that stretched from the Pyrenees to Greece. When Petronilla, the teenage heiress of the Kingdom of Aragon, married Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, nobody could have predicted their union would create one of medieval Europe's greatest powers.

The Kingdom of Aragon had been a small inland territory in the north, but through this strategic alliance, it transformed into the Crown of Aragon, a vast confederation that would dominate Mediterranean trade for centuries. Within the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter, where the Royal Archive was established in 1318 to preserve the kingdom's documents, this city became the true capital of power. While Aragon's kings were crowned in Zaragoza following tradition, the real decisions were made here.

This was where the royal court resided, where merchants from across the sea negotiated deals, and where the empire's administrative heart beat strongest. By the 1400s, the Crown controlled the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, and territories in Greece. Catalan merchants commanded the Mediterranean's most profitable trade routes, making this port wealthier than many European capitals. The kingdom maintained its identity until 1479, when Ferdinand II married Isabella of Castile, though its institutions survived until 1716.