Teruel ( Catalan: ''Terol'' ) is a province of

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, ...

, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel (province), Teruel Province. It had a population of 35,900 as of 2022, making it the least populated provincial capital in Spain. It is noted for its har ...

. It is bordered by the provinces of

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

, Castellón,

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 ...

(including its

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca,

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, and

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

. The area of the province is 14,809 km². Its population is 134,572 (2018), of whom about a quarter live in the capital, and its population density is 9.36/km². It contains 236 municipalities, of which more than half are villages of under 200 people. Teruel is the second-least populated province of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, and also the second-lowest in population density, in both counts after the

province of Soria Soria is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. Most of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. Demo ...

. The main language throughout the province is Spanish (with official status), although Catalan is spoken in a northeastern area bordering

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 ...

Geography

This province is located in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. The main ranges in the province of Teruel are Sierra de la Virgen, Sierra de Santa Cruz, Sierra de Cucalón, Sierra de San Just, Sierra Carrascosa, Sierra Menera, Sierra Palomera, Sierra de Javalambre, Sierra de Gúdar, Sierra de Albarracín and the Montes Universales, among others.

Depopulation and neglect

Most of the Teruel Province has undergone massive depopulation since the middle of the 20th century. This situation is shared with other areas in Spain, particularly with those near the Iberian mountain range (much of the provinces of Soria,

and Cuenca) and with other areas in Aragón. The exodus from the rural mountain areas in Teruel rose after General Franco's ''Plan de Estabilización'' in 1959. The population declined steeply as people migrated towards the industrial areas and the large cities in Spain, leaving behind their small villages where living conditions were often harsh, with cold winters and very basic facilities. As a consequence there are many

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

s in different parts of the province. A great number of surviving towns in Teruel province have only a residual population, reviving somewhat during the summer when a few city-dwellers spend their holidays there. Other causes of the strong emigration have been the low productivity of traditional agricultural practices, like sheep and goat farming, the closing of mines, like the large Sierra Menera mine near Ojos Negros, as well as the lifestyle changes that swept over rural Spain during the second half of the 20th century. The " Teruel Exists" () movement began at the turn of the 21st century. It is a platform of provincial authorities, institutions and sympathizers seeking to reverse the long-standing neglect of this province.Teruel existe
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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:650 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:270 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:249 text:248,765 bar:1887 from:0 till:247 text:246,817 bar:1900 from:0 till:252 text:251,994 bar:1910 from:0 till:266 text:265,908 bar:1920 from:0 till:264 text:264,062 bar:1930 from:0 till:264 text:263,700 bar:1940 from:0 till:246 text:245,960 bar:1950 from:0 till:243 text:243,269 bar:1960 from:0 till:224 text:223,758 bar:1970 from:0 till:174 text:173,861 bar:1980 from:0 till:153 text:153,457 bar:1990 from:0 till:144 text:143,680 bar:2000 from:0 till:136 text:135,858 bar:2010 from:0 till:143 text:143,162 bar:2020 from:0 till:134 text:134,176 TextData= pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"

Comarcas

The following Comarcas of Aragon are located in Teruel Province: * Bajo Martín * Jiloca * Cuencas Mineras * Andorra-Sierra de Arcos * Bajo Aragón * Comunidad de Teruel * Maestrazgo * Sierra de Albarracín Comarca * Gúdar-Javalambre * Matarraña

Notable people

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

, film director from Calanda *

Gaspar Sanz Francisco Bartolomé Sanz Celma (April 4, 1640 ( baptized) – 1710), better known as Gaspar Sanz, was a Spanish composer, guitarist, and priest born to a wealthy family in Calanda in the comarca of Bajo Aragón, Spain. He studied music, theo ...

, music composer from Calanda * Antón García Abril, music composer * Pablo Serrano, sculptor from Crivillén * Luis Milla, retired footballer who played for CD Teruel, FC Barcelona and R. Madrid *

David Civera David Civera Gracia (born in Teruel, Aragón, Spain on 8 January 1979) is a Spanish singer. Biography Civera was born in Teruel, in 1979. His parents are José and Pilar and he has two sisters, Sonia is older than David, and Andrea is the yo ...

, light music singer * Federico Jiménez Losantos, author, journalist and radio host * Manuel Pizarro Moreno, businessman, politician and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

Notes and references

External links

Teruel.org

Teruel Info. – Caciquismo & desarrollismo
– N.B. This text-only website is in Japanese. Content not clear.
Teruel Digital

Directory in dmoz.org

Fundación Amantes de Teruel

Deteruel.com — Comunidad virtual de TeruelEl número de ancianos españoles aumenta un 20% en 13 años
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teruel, Province of