VIC

(Catalan), Spanish Vich city, Barcelona provincia, in the comunidad autnoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. The city is situated on the Vic Plain and lies along the Meder River, which is an affluent of the Ter River. Because it was first inhabited by the Ausetanos, an ancient Iberian tribe, it was called Ausa. It was Romanized in the 2nd century and took the name Vicus Ausonensis (Ausona) in the 5th century. In 826 it was destroyed by Arab invaders who rebuilt it as Vich in 885. A powerful self-governing city in the Middle Ages, it aided James I of Aragon in his conquest of Valencia (123538). The French, under General Joseph Souham, defeated the Spanish at Vich in 1810. The city has a restored Roman temple and a Neoclassical cathedral. The latter, founded in 1040 and reconstructed in the period 17801803, is notable for the wall paintings of Jos Mara Sert y Bada, whose earlier series were destroyed in 1936 when the building was sacked during the Spanish Civil War. The Episcopal Museum houses early Catalan paintings and Roman sculpture. The city is a meat-processing and dairy centre that also produces cereals, textiles, and dyes. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 28,289.