Ribagorça () or Ribagorza (, ; ) is a

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 ...

and

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 ...

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, ...

and

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 ...

. Located in the Pre-Pyrenees and

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

area, most of its territory is mountainous. The region has been steadily losing population since mid 20th century. The

Noguera Ribagorçana The Noguera Ribagorzana () or Noguera Ribagorçana () is a river in northern Spain.Dorothy Noyes ''Fire in the Placa: Catalan Festival Politics After Franco'' 2003 p. ix "Catalonia proper — a triangle with the Pyrenees as one side, the Mediter ...

river is named after this region.

Geography

The region is located south of the French border with the Pallars in the east and the

Sobrarbe Sobrarbe is a comarca of Aragon, Spain. It is located in the north of Huesca province, making up part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Many of its people speak the Aragonese language locally known as ''fabla''. Sobrarbe is a mountainous ...

in the west. The physiography of the Ribagorça natural region includes the Ésera,

Isábena Isábena (), in (), or in , is a municipality located in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 278 inhabitants. The town is situated at the foot of the rocky Morrón de ...

and Noguera Ribagorçana river basins with their tributaries. The region also encompasses the mountain ranges spanning the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees area that surrounds the basins of these south-flowing rivers.

Municipalities

The traditional capital of the region was

Benabarre Benabarre (), in Ribagorçan dialect, Ribagorçan and Aragonese dialect, Aragonese: Benavarri () is a town and municipality in the Aragonese Comarcas of Aragon, comarca of Ribagorza (comarca), Ribagorza, in the province of Huesca, Spain. Benabarr ...

(); according to the 2014

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, the municipality has a population of 1,153 inhabitants. In present times, however, the most important town of the Ribagorça is

Graus Graus () is a village in the Spanish province of Huesca, located in the Pyrenees at the confluence of rivers Esera and Isabena. It is the administrative capital of the region. It is one of the areas of Aragon in which is still preserved the Ara ...

with a population of 3,429 in 2014.

Present-day administrative divisions

Ribagorza/Ribagorça

Ribagorza/Ribagorça is a comarca of Aragon established in 2002. It forms the northeastern part of Huesca Province. It borders the French ''département'' of the

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; , ; ''Upper Garonne'') is a department in the southwestern French region of Occitanie. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's fourth-largest. ...

to the north, the

Aran Valley Aran (; ; ) (often known as the Aran Valley, or Val d'Aran in Aranese Occitan; in other forms of Occitan: ''Vath d'Aran'' or ''Vau d'Aran'', in Catalan: ''Vall d'Aran'', in Spanish: ''Valle de Arán'') is an autonomous administrative entity (form ...

, Alta Ribagorça,

Pallars Jussà Pallars Jussà () is a comarca (county) in Alt Pirineu, Catalonia, Spain. It was established as a ''comarca'' in 1936, out of the old county of Pallars. The name is an archaism meaning "Lower Pallars"; to the northeast and into the mountains i ...

, and Noguera to the east,

to the west, as well as Somontano de Barbastro and La Litera/La Llitera to the south. The territory of the modern Aragonese comarca was traditionally known as ''Baixa Ribagorça'' in Catalan.

Alta Ribagorça

Present-day Alta Ribagorça is one of the ''comarques'' of Catalonia. Its capital is Pont de Suert. Other municipalities are Vall de Boí and Vilaller.

History

The County of Ribagorça was a historic

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

with its own dynasty between 872 and 1017. It became a county of the

Kingdom of Aragon The Kingdom of Aragon (; ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Monarchy, kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain. It became a part of the larger ...

from 1018 to 1322, year in which it was joined to Aragon as an

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a monarch, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture (where only the eldest inherits). It was ...

or estate. Ribagorça became part of the

Spanish Crown The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

in 1591 under Philip II.

Linguistics

Ribagorçan (''ribagorzano'', ''ribagorsano'') is a transitional Aragonese and Catalan dialect spoken in the area of Aragon and Catalan Ribagorçan (''ribagorçà'') is a Catalan dialect spoken in the Alta Ribagorça, Catalonia. Speakers of Pont de Suert use a Catalan variant transitional to Aragonese with some traits of

Aranese Aranese () is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon dialect, Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in northwestern Catalonia close to the France–Spain border, Spanish border with France, where it is one of the t ...

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

. However, Aragonese and Catalan form a

dialectal continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

in the region and it is not possible to draw the geographical limit of both languages in a clear-cut manner.Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana
/ref>

References

External links

*
Benabarre Municipality
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribagorca Historical regions in Spain Natural regions of Spain Subdivisions of Aragon Subdivisions of Catalonia History of Aragon History of Catalonia