Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Vich

VICH, a town of Spain, in the province of Barcelona, 38 miles by rail to the north of that town, lies in a small side valley of the Ter, about 1500 feet above sea-level. It is irregularly built on a hill slope, and has narrow ill-paved streets; there are some quaint old houses in the Plaza Mayor. The cathedral, begun about 1040, belongs chiefly to the first half of the 14th century, but with some mischievous alterations of the 18th. The interior, with three naves and a transept, is elegant, and the Gothic cloisters (1340) are particularly fine. The industries include tanning and the weaving of linen and woollen fabrics; and sausages are a speciality of the place. There are mines of copper and coal in the neighbourhood. The population within the municipal boundaries in 1877 was 12,478.

Vich, the Ausa of the ancient geographers, was the chief town of the Ausetani; in the Middle Ages it was called Ausona and Vicus Ausonensis, hence Vic de Osona, and simply Vich.