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, in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. Its capital is Valderrobres, and it borders the Aragonese comarques of Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp, and Bajo Aragón, 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 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 flowing through it. It belongs to the Catalan-speaking strip in eastern Aragon known as La Franja.

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 while the southern part remained in Teruel Province. This former northern territory, that included the municipalities of Fayón (Faió del Matarranya), Maella and Fabara (Favara del Matarranya), is now the eastern end of the Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp 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 Canyada de Beric), La Cerollera (La Sorollera), La Codoñera (La Codonyera), La Ginebrosa and Torrevelilla (La Torre de Vilella) were later segregated from Matarranya and included in the Bajo Aragón comarca.

Municipal terms

The Catalan version of the names of the towns are in brackets. * Arens de Lledó (Arenys de Lledó) * Beceite (Beseit) * Calaceite (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 (Pena-roja de Tastavins) * La Portellada * Ráfales (Ràfels) * Torre de Arcas (Torredarques) * Torre del Compte (La Torre del Comte) * Valdeltormo (La Vall de Tormo) * Valderrobres (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

Historical comarca

Municipal terms

See also

References

External links