Matarraña () or Matarranya ()Official name as appears in the establishing law of the comarca (BOA 7/2002 15th april)
/ref> is a

comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, mark ...

in eastern

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, bordering the Spanish

Autonomous Communities The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Spa ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

and

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. It is located in

Teruel Province Teruel ( Catalan: ''Terol'' ) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel. It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Z ...

, in the

mountainous A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

Sistema Ibérico The Iberian System is one of the major systems of mountain ranges in Spain. It consists of a vast and complex area of mostly relatively high and rugged mountain chains and massifs located in the central region of the Iberian Peninsula, but ...

area. Its capital is

Valderrobres Valderrobres () or Vall-de-roures () is a municipality and the major town of the ''comarca'' of Matarraña in the province of Teruel, Aragon (Spain). It is located in view of the landscape of the northwestern foothills of the Ports de Tortosa-B ...

, and it borders the Aragonese comarques of

Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp The Bajo, Bajonese, Bajonesian, or Wajo, Wajonese (; ; , ) are the indigenous Indonesian ethnic group native to the Bajo Island of Lesser Sunda Islands (''Nusa Tenggara'') in Central–Eastern Indonesia region. These ethnic group can be found al ...

, and

Bajo Aragón Bajo Aragón (; ; ), or Lower Aragon, is an administrative comarca in eastern central Aragon, Spain. It was first established in 1999. It has a population of 29,358 (2007) and an area of 1.304,2 km2. The seat of the comarca is in Alcañiz. I ...

, the Catalan comarques of Terra Alta,

Baix Ebre Baix Ebre (, "Lower Ebro") is a comarca (county) on the coast in southern Catalonia. It is located in the region of Terres de l'Ebre Terres de l'Ebre (, in English 'Ebro, Ebre Lands') is the south-westernmost of the eight regions (Vegueria, ''v ...

, and

Montsià Montsià () is a comarca (county) of the Terres de l'Ebre region, in Catalonia (Spain). It is the southernmost comarca and its capital and largest city is Amposta. History Almost all Montsià municipalities are part of the Taula del Sénia fre ...

, and the Valencian comarques of

Baix Maestrat Baix Maestrat (; ) is a coastal Comarques of the Valencian Community, ''comarca'' located in the north of the Provinces of Spain, province of Castellón (province), Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain. The capital of the ''comarca'' is Vinarò ...

and

Ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...

. This comarca is named after the

Matarranya River The Matarranya (, ) is a river in the provinces of Teruel and Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. It begins its course at 1,200 m northeast of the Tossal d'Encanader, Ports de Beseit. limestone massif near La Pobla de Benifassà. The Matarranya flows rou ...

flowing through it. It belongs to the Catalan-speaking strip in eastern Aragon known as

La Franja La Franja (; "The Strip"; ) is the area of Catalan-speaking territories of eastern Aragon bordering Catalonia, in Spain. It literally means ''"the strip"'' and can also more properly be called (Aragonese Strip), (Western Strip) or (Eastern St ...

Historical comarca

The

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

Matarranya comarca was a

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

that roughly encompassed the whole Matarranya

river basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

. The historical comarca was split for administrative purposes when provincial boundaries were traced following the territorial division of Spain in 1833. After the new divisions were created, the northern section, the Lower Matarranya, became part of the

Zaragoza Province Zaragoza (), also called Saragossa in English,''Encyclopædia Britannica''Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)/ref> is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is the city of Zaragoza, whic ...

while the southern part remained in Teruel Province. This former northern territory, that included the municipalities of

Fayón Fayón () or Faió () is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 395 inhabitants. This town is located between the Ebro and the Matarranya rive ...

(Faió del Matarranya), Maella and Fabara (Favara del Matarranya), is now the eastern end of the

comarca. Some of the western municipalities that remained in Teruel Province, Aguaviva (Aiguaviva de Bergantes), Belmonte de San José (Bellmunt de Mesquí),

La Cañada de Verich La Cañada de Verich () or La Canyada de Veric () is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality had a population of 103 inhabitants. La Canyada de Verich has traditiona ...

(La Canyada de Beric), La Cerollera (La Sorollera),

La Codoñera La Codoñera () or La Codonyera () is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 340 inhabitants. See also * List of municipalities in Teruel This i ...

(La Codonyera),

La Ginebrosa La Ginebrosa (; ) is a municipality located in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2018 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 200 inhabitants. See also * List of municipalities in Teruel This is a list of the m ...

and Torrevelilla (La Torre de Vilella) were later segregated from Matarranya and included in the

comarca.

Municipal terms

The Catalan version of the names of the towns are in brackets. * Arens de Lledó (Arenys de Lledó) * Beceite (Beseit) *

Calaceite Calaceite () or ''Calaceit'' () is a municipality located in the Matarraña comarca, in the province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 1,145 inhabitants. There are many ancient bui ...

(Calaceit) * Cretas (Cretes or Queretes) * Fórnoles (Fórnols de Matarranya) * La Fresneda (La Freixneda) * Fuentespalda (Fontdespatla) * Lledó (Lledó d'Algars) * Mazaleón (Massalió) * Monroyo (Mont-roig de Tastavins) *

Peñarroya de Tastavins Peñarroya de Tastavins () or Pena-roja () is a municipality located in the Matarranya Comarcas of Aragon, comarca, Teruel (province), province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), INE) ...

(Pena-roja de Tastavins) * La Portellada * Ráfales (Ràfels) * Torre de Arcas (Torredarques) * Torre del Compte (La Torre del Comte) * Valdeltormo (La Vall de Tormo) *

(Vall-de-roures) * Valjunquera (Valljunquera)

References

External links

Official Comarca of Matarraña/Matarranya websiteLandscaping Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matarrana Matarranya Comarcas of Aragon Geography of the Province of Teruel La Franja