In the 11th century Urgell was an immense diocese which stretched from Ribes de Freser to the Aragonese valley of Gistau, and to the south reached the lands under Muslim occupation beyond Oliana and Montsec. These boundaries changed many times over the years. In 888, on an initiative of the usurping Bishop Esclusa (888-892), the Pallars and Ribagorza were separated from the diocese and ceded to Bishop Adolphus (888-920?), whom he had instituted and consecrated. When Adolphus' successor Aton died (940) the Paillrs returned to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Urgell, but much of Ribagorza remained permanently separated from the diocese and was dependent on the new episcopal see

As the reconquest of the southern lands proceeded through the 11th century, the diocesan territory expanded considerably. The blurring of the boundaries gave rise to long, tedious conflicts between the sees of Roda and Urgell, which were resolved in 1140 by a Concordat which left the diocese of Urgell with the churches of the Senet valley, Boí, Areny and Giberta and those of the country of Paillars on the far bank of the Noguerola river. In the interior of the diocese there were various communities of exempt Regulars - such as the monastery of Gerri and Santa Maria de Meià and the Augustinian canonical communities of Mur and Ager -, lords of a wide land and various parish churches which also enjoyed the same privilege of exemption and were not subject to episcopal jurisdiction.