Altorricón () or El Torricó () is a municipality located in the ''comarca'' of

La Litera/La Llitera La Litera () or La Llitera () ( an, A Litera) is an Aragonese comarca in the south-east of the province of Huesca. Its cultural capital is Tamarite de Litera, its administrative capital is Binefar and it borders the comarques of Ribagorza, Somo ...

in the province of

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

, Spain. With an extension of 32.03 km², the municipal district of Altorricón lies on the southern part of La Llitera, limiting with

El Segrià EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

(

Almacelles Almacelles () is a town in the ''comarca'' of Segrià, in Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Auto ...

). The district is surrounded north and south by

Tamarite de Litera Tamarite de Litera, ca, Tamarit de Llitera, is the first major town of the ''comarca'' of La Litera in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2014 census, Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) the municipality has a population ...

. The municipality contains the town of Altorricón and the uninhabited towns of ''Cuquet'', ''Montanera'' and ''Lo Tossal'' as well as the old church of ''San Bartolomé de Altorricón''. It has two official names ''Altorricón'' and ''El Torricó''. The official name of Altorricón is considered to be incorrect by historians, although most of the population use that form of the name, in either the Spanish form of it ''Altorricón'' or the Catalan ''Altorricó''. The name probably derived from

Western Catalan The Catalan dialects feature a relative uniformity, especially when compared to other Romance languages; both in terms of vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology. Mutual intelligibility between its dialects is very high, estima ...

"''Torricó''", or small tower, with

Al- ( ar, ٱلْـ), also Romanized as ''el-'', ''il-,'' and ''l-'' as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic, is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (''ḥarf'') whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed de ...

being a common prefix in Arab names. It's not clear what 'small tower' the name could refer to, but hypothesis point to Castle of Vallbona (Catalan ''Castell de Vallbona'') situated north west from the town, or maybe some building that no longer exists in the center of the village. The secondary water channel of ''La Mola'', derived from the Canal d'Aragó i Catalunya crosses the municipal district diagonally from NW to SE, and is used to irrigate the land all across the territory. Multiple minor channels distribute the water, namely the ravine of ''San Bartomeu'' or the one of ''Clamorelles''. A small section in the SW is drained by the torrent of ''Oriols'' and ''Vallbona''. Altorricón, right smack in the middle of the municipality, is crossed by the local road of

that springs out north from the national road N240 (

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

). The locals call the portion of the road that heads south to the N240, ''la carretera del Butano'' (Catalan ''carretera del butà'') in honor of the

butane Butane () or ''n''-butane is an alkane with the formula C4H10. Butane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Butane is a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas that quickly vaporizes at room temperature. The name but ...

gas processing station that once existed at the intersection with the N240. The portion of the road that heads up north is simply called, ''carretera de Tamarite'' (Catalan ''carretera de Tamarit''). There is another road starting from the nucleus of the town that heads southwest and ends on Tamarite's railway station linking with the N240, a few kilometers west from where the road to Tamarite de Litera split up. The road also links Altorricón with the small community of ''La Melusa'', and thus locals call the road ''carretera de La Melusa''. The local dialect is a variant of

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

References

External links

Official website of Altorricon's city hall Altorricon Soccer Association official website Banda de Tambores, Bombos y Cornetas de AltorricónChous & Company; Acambalachous; Malabares, mágia, actuaciones en la calle...Google Maps view of Altorricón
{{DEFAULTSORT:Altorricon Municipalities in the Province of Huesca