Cuenca is one of the five provinces of the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

of Castilla-La Mancha. It is located in the eastern part of this autonomous community and covers 17,141 square km. It has a population of 203,841 inhabitants -- the least populated of the five provinces. Its capital city is also called Cuenca.

Geography

The province is bordered by the provinces of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

(including its exclave

Rincón de Ademuz Rincón de Ademuz is a Spanish comarca constituted as an exclave of both the Valencian Community and the Valencia province located between the provinces of Cuenca ( Castile-La Mancha) and Teruel ( Aragon). It is part of the Spanish-speaking area ...

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...

, Ciudad Real, Toledo,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Guadalajara, and

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...

. The northeastern side of the province is 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 th ...

Sistema Ibérico The Iberian System ( es, Sistema Ibérico, ) 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 th ...

area. 211,375 people (2007) live in the province. Its capital is Cuenca, where nearly a quarter of the population live, some 52,980 people. There are 238 municipalities in Cuenca. Other populous towns and municipalities include

Tarancón Tarancón is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Cuenca, Castilla–La Mancha. As of 2018, it has a population of 14,834, which makes it the second most populated municipality in the province. History The place's repopulation pre ...

San Clemente San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway between ...

Quintanar del Rey Quintanar del Rey 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 ...

, Huete,

Villanueva de la Jara Villanueva de la Jara, popularly called La Jara, is a town and municipality in the Manchuela Conquense , this in turn is part of the La Manchuela comarca, province of Cuenca, in Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is known for the cultivation of port ...

, Motilla del Palancar,

Mota del Cuervo Mota del Cuervo is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Cuenca, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 176.19 km2 and, as of 1 January 2020, it has a registered population of 6,055. It is one of the few ...

La Almarcha La Almarcha is a municipality in Cuenca, Castile-La Mancha, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Furt ...

and Las Pedroñeras. A Black and White Photo of the Cuenca Cathedral in Spain

History

In 1851 Cuenca lost

Requena-Utiel La Plana de Utiel-Requena is a ''comarca'' currently in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community, Spain. Historically, the ''comarca'' was part of Castile and formed part of the province of Cuenca in the 1833 provincial division of Javier ...

to the neighbouring

Valencia Province Valencia ( ca-valencia, València) is a province of Spain, in the central part of the autonomous Valencian Community. Of the province's over 2.5 million people (2018), one-third live in the capital, Valencia, which is also the capital of the au ...

, with which it was developing commercial ties. Nevertheless,

remained

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

-speaking (rather than

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 ...

), while the loss of its most dynamic region left the province of Cuenca relatively underdeveloped economically.

Population development

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) ImageSize = width:600 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:350 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo PlotData= color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1877 from:0 till:239 text:238,991 bar:1887 from:0 till:246 text:245,699 bar:1900 from:0 till:251 text:250,755 bar:1910 from:0 till:272 text:271,748 bar:1920 from:0 till:288 text:287,507 bar:1930 from:0 till:315 text:314,633 bar:1940 from:0 till:341 text:340,549 bar:1950 from:0 till:344 text:344,033 bar:1960 from:0 till:329 text:328,554 bar:1970 from:0 till:252 text:251,619 bar:1980 from:0 till:216 text:215,975 bar:1990 from:0 till:205 text:205,198 bar:2000 from:0 till:200 text:200,346 bar:2010 from:0 till:215 text:215,165 bar:2020 from:0 till:196 text:196,139 TextData= pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"

Notes and references

List of municipalities in Cuenca This is a list of the municipalities in the province of Cuenca, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, Spain. There are 238 municipalities in the province. See also *Geography of Spain Spain is a country located in southwes ...

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