Oliana is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the ''comarca'' of the

Alt Urgell Alt Urgell () is a ''comarca'' (county) in Catalonia, Spain, a modern representation of part of the historic County of Urgell (''ca'' 789 - 1413), seat of the Counts of Urgell and the historic region of Urgellet Urgellet () is a historical te ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, Spain. It is situated in the Segre valley immediately below the Oliana

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

. There is a factory of domestic electrical appliances in the town, and the presence of non-

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

employment has meant that Oliana has escaped the

depopulation A population decline (also sometimes called underpopulation, depopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size. Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth's total human population ...

experienced by most municipalities in north-west Catalonia. It is currently the second-largest town (by population) in the Alt Urgell, behind the comarcal capital

La Seu d'Urgell La Seu d'Urgell (; es, Seo de Urgel, formerly in ca, Urgell}) is a town located in the Catalan Pyrenees in Spain. La Seu d'Urgell is also the capital of the comarca Alt Urgell, head of the judicial district of la Seu d'Urgell and the seat of Bi ...

. The town is served by the C-14 road between Ponts and La Seu d'Urgell.

Demography

Subdivisions

The municipality of Oliana includes two outlying villages.

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

s are given as of 2001: *Les Anoves (27) *El Castell (73)

Climbing

The region is well-known among

rock climbers Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

for its extremely difficult limestone cliffs, including ''

La Dura Dura ''La Dura Dura'' is a sport climbing route on the limestone cliffs at Peramola, a village in Oliana, Spain. The route was bolted and developed by American climber Chris Sharma in 2009 who had almost given up believing he could climb it until a co ...

'' ("the hardest of the hard"), which is one of the hardest climbs successfully undertaken in the world.

References

* Panareda Clopés, Josep Maria; Rios Calvet, Jaume; Rabella Vives, Josep Maria (1989). ''Guia de Catalunya'', Barcelona: Caixa de Catalunya. (Spanish). (Catalan).

External links

Government data pages
Municipalities in Alt Urgell Populated places in Alt Urgell {{Lleida-geo-stub