Ribagorça () or Ribagorza (; french: Rives Gorces) is a historical 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 ...

of Aragon and

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 nort ...

. Located in the

Pre-Pyrenees The Pre-Pyrenees are the foothills of the Pyrenees. Description As a mountainous system the Pre-Pyrenees are part of the Pyrenees. They run parallel to the main mountain range in a west to east direction. On the French side the Pyrenees's slop ...

and

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

area, most of its territory is

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 ...

. 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 Mediterr ...

river is named after this region.

Geography

The region is located south of the French border with the

Pallars Pallars is a historical and natural region of Catalonia. Located in the Pre-Pyrenees and Pyrenees area, most of its territory is mountainous. The Noguera Pallaresa river is named after this region. Geography The physiography of the Pallars natu ...

in the east and the

Sobrarbe Sobrarbe is one of the comarcas of Aragon, Spain. It is located in the northern part of the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragon in Spain. Many of its people speak the Aragonese language locally known as ''fabla''. Th ...

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

Ésera The Ésera (), is a tributary of the Cinca in the High Aragon. It is part of the valley of the Ebro and its drainage basin. Its etymology is Celtic and it is cognate with several European rivers: Isar, Jizera, Isère, Isel, IJssel, and Eisac ...

Isábena Isábena (), in ca, label=Catalan, Isàvena, italics=no (), or in an, Isabana, italics=no, is a municipality located in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 278 inhabit ...

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 and Aragonese: Benavarri () is a town and municipality in the Aragonese comarca of Ribagorza, in the province of Huesca, Spain. Benabarre is the historical and cultural capital of the comarca. It is part of the ge ...

( ca, Benavarri); according to the 2014

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

, 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 ...

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 Huesca ( an, Uesca, ca, Osca), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca. Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Haute-Ga ...

. It borders the French ''département'' of the

Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...

to the north, the

Aran Valley Aran (; ; ) (previously officially called in Occitan Val d'Aran, Catalan: ''Vall d'Aran'', Spanish: ''Valle de Arán'') is an administrative entity (formerly considered a comarca) in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain, consisting of the Aran Valley, in are ...

Alta Ribagorça Alta Ribagorça () is one of the comarques of Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Pont de Suert. The highest peak is the Comaloformo (3030 metres above sea level) in the massif of Bessiberri. Northeast of the region is the western part of the Ai ...

Pallars Jussà Pallars Jussà () is a comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain. It was established as a ''comarca'' in 1936, out of the old county of Pallars. The name means "Lower Pallars"; to the northeast and into the mountains is Pallars Sobirà. Its capital a ...

, and Noguera to the east,

to the west, as well as

Somontano de Barbastro Somontano de Barbastro ( Aragonese: ''Semontano de Balbastro)'' is a comarca in Province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. Somontano borders the counties of Sobrarbe and Alto Gállego to the north, Ribagorza and La Litera to the east, Cinca Medio ...

and

La Litera/La Llitera La Litera () or La Llitera () ( an, A Litera) is an Aragonese comarca in the south-east of the province of Huesca. Its cultural capital is Tamarite de Litera, its administrative capital is Binefar and it borders the comarques of Ribagorza, Som ...

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 The Vall de Boí () is a narrow, steep-sided valley and a small municipality in the province of Lleida, in the autonomous community of Catalonia, northern Spain. It lies in the northeastern corner of the comarca of Alta Ribagorça, on the edges ...

and

Vilaller Vilaller is a town and municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alta Ribagorça in Catalonia, Spain. Besides from the town of Vilaller, the municipality comprises the hamlet of Senet de Barravés and the old stable of Cierco, the latter is abandoned: o ...

History

The

County of Ribagorça The County of Ribagorza or Ribagorça ( an, Condato de Ribagorza, ca, Comtat de Ribagorça, la, Comitatus Ripacurtiae) was a medieval county on the southern side of the Pyrenees, including the northeast of modern Aragón and part of the northwes ...

was a historic

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

with its own dynasty between 872 and 1017. It became a county of the Kingdom of Aragon from 1018 to 1322, year in which it was joined to Aragon as an

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...

or estate. Ribagorça became part of the Spanish Crown in 1591 under

Philip II Philip II may refer to: * Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BC) * Philip II (emperor) (238–249), Roman emperor * Philip II, Prince of Taranto (1329–1374) * Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (1342–1404) * Philip II, Duke of Savoy (1438-1497) * Philip ...

Linguistics

Ribagorçan (''ribagorzano'', ''ribagorsano'') is a transitional Aragonese and

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 ...

dialect spoken in the area of Aragon and Catalan Ribagorçan (''ribagorçà'') is a Catalan dialect spoken in the

, Catalonia. Speakers of Pont de Suert use a Catalan variant transitional to Aragonese with some traits of

Aranese Aranese ( oc, aranés) is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in northwestern Catalonia close to the Spanish border with France, where it is one of the three official languag ...

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 language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

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