1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reus

REUS, a city of N.E. Spain, in the province of Tarragona, on the Saragossa-Tarragona railway, 4 m. N. of Salou, its port on the Mediterranean. Pop. (1900) 26,681. Reus consists of two parts, the old and the new, separated by the Calle Arrabal, which occupies the site of the old city wall. The old town centres in the Plaza del Mercado, from which narrow and tortuous lanes radiate in various directions; the new one dates from about the middle of the 18th century, and its streets are wide and straight. There is an active trade in the agricultural products of the fertile region around the city. The local industries developed considerably between 1875 and 1905, and the city has important flour, wine and fruit export houses. There is a model farm belonging to the municipality in the suburbs. Reus has excellent primary, normal and higher grade state schools, many private schools, an academy of fine arts and a public library. The hospitals and foundling refuge, the institute and the town hall are handsome modern buildings. The earliest records of Reus date from about the middle of the 13th century. Its modern prosperity is traced to about the year 1750, when a colony of English settled here and established a trade in woollens, leather, wine and spirits. The principal incidents in its political history arose out of the occurrences of 1843 (see Spain, History), in connexion with which the town received the title of city, and Generals Zurbano and Prim were made counts of Reus. The city was the birthplace of General Prim (1814–1870) and of the painter Mariano Fortuny (1839–1874).