and the economic exploitation of the territory, which led to the abandonment of Ullastret in the 2nd century BC. The Baix Empordà was Romanized like all other places of the Roman Empire but that was followed by barbaric invasions in the 3rd and 5th centuries that notably impoverished the region and reduced their urban centers to the minimum expression. There are many traces of the Romanization, but it is hard to envision the print of the Visigoths and the Arabs, because the proximity of the Kingdom of the Franks caused the creation of independent counties ruled by feudal lords. The Muslim invasion actually lasted less than sixty years (714–785) and the old Hispano-Gothic population came back. The administrative division of the Carolingian Empire divided the conquered Catalan territory in counties. While the north of the county and the current Alt Empordà was organised around the county of Empúries, the rest were regions or sub-regions of the Bishop of Girona, owner of extensive lands—especially in the Baix Empordà-, or baronies from branches of the Cardona vinculated to the county, to then be the maritime center of the county of Girona, from Begur to Sant Feliu de Guíxols. The first "drassanes" or shipyards where found in Empordà in the 10th century, as well as in Tortosa in 945, then ruled by Abd al-Rahman III. References External links Club de Polo Ampurdan History of Catalonia