Catalan mediaeval history is Monty Python avant la lettre, and bombardments involving excreta, livestock and human body parts are written into every self-respecting siege, even when there wasn’t one. This particularly touching legend is from one of folklorist Joan Amades’ collections (sorry, reference lost):
The triumphant Moors arrived at the gates of [Barcelona] and, with a ballista, fired the head of [Count Borrell II of Barcelona] … into the city. It was fired from what is now Basea Street … so that [it] came to a stop on one of the terraces of the palace, right at the feet of the Countess … who had been waiting anxiously for news of her husband.
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