1.
Municipalities of Spain
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The municipalities of Spain are the basic level of Spanish local government. There are a total of 8,118 municipalities in Spain, including the cities of Ceuta. In the Principality of Asturias, municipalities are officially named concejos, the area of the municipal territory usually ranges 2–40 km², but municipalities such as Tremp cover more than 300 km². The organisation of the municipalities is governed by a 2 April 1985 law, the Statutes of Autonomy of the various autonomous communities also contain provisions concerning the relations between the municipalities and the autonomous governments. In general, municipalities enjoy a degree of autonomy in their local affairs, many of the functions of the comarcas. Each municipality is a corporation with independent legal personality, its body is called the ayuntamiento. The ayuntamiento is composed of the mayor, the deputy mayors, the mayor and the deputy mayors are elected by the plenary assembly, which is itself elected by universal suffrage on a list system every four years. The plenary assembly must meet publicly at least every three months at the seat of the ayuntamiento, many ayuntamientos also have a governing commission, named by the mayor from among the councillors, it is required for municipalities of more than 5,000 inhabitants. The governing commission, whose role is to assist the mayor between meetings of the assembly, may not include more than one third of the councillors. List of municipalities of Spain Political divisions of Spain
Municipalities of Spain
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Municipality
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
Spain
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Lady of Elche
Spain
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Flag
Spain
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Altamira Cave paintings, in
Cantabria.
Spain
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Celtic castro in
A Guarda,
Galicia.
4.
Autonomous communities of Spain
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Spain is not a federation, but a highly decentralized unitary state. Some scholars have referred to the system as a federal system in all. There are 17 autonomous communities and two cities that are collectively known as autonomies. The two autonomous cities have the right to become autonomous communities, but neither has yet used this right and this unique framework of territorial administration is known as the State of Autonomies. The autonomous communities are governed according to the constitution and their own organic laws known as Statutes of Autonomy, since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical in nature, the scope of competences vary for each community, but all have the same parliamentary structure. Spain is a country made up of different regions with varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages. While the entire Spanish territory was united under one crown by the 16th century, the constituent territories—be it crowns, kingdoms, principalities or dominions—retained much of their former institutional existence, including limited legislative, judicial or fiscal autonomy. These territories also exhibited a variety of customs, laws. From the 18th century onwards, the Bourbon kings and the government tried to establish a more centralized regime, leading figures of the Spanish Enlightenment advocated for the building of a Spanish nation beyond the internal territorial boundaries. This culminated in 1833, when Spain was divided into 49 provinces and these were the Basque Country and Catalonia. This gave rise to peripheral nationalisms along with Spanish nationalism, therefore, economic and social changes that had produced a national cultural unification in France had the opposite effect in Spain. In a response to Catalan demands, limited autonomy was granted to Catalonia in 1913 and it was granted again in 1932 during the Second Spanish Republic, when the Generalitat, Catalonias mediaeval institution of government, was restored. During General Francos dictatorial regime, centralism was most forcefully enforced as a way of preserving the unity of the Spanish nation, peripheral nationalism, along with communism and atheism were regarded by his regime as the main threats. When Franco died in 1975, Spain entered into a phase of transition towards democracy, the then Prime Minister of Spain, Adolfo Suárez, met with Josep Tarradellas, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia in exile. An agreement was made so that the Generalitat would be restored and limited competencies would be transferred while the constitution was still being written. In the end, the constitution, published and ratified in 1979, found a balance in recognizing the existence of nationalities and regions in Spain, within the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation. The starting point in the organization of Spain was the second article of the constitution. In order to exercise this right, the established a open process whereby the nationalities
Autonomous communities of Spain
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A map of
Iberia in 1757
Autonomous communities of Spain
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Galicia
Autonomous communities of Spain
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The Spanish Parliament, Congress of Deputies
Autonomous communities of Spain
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Pro-Catalan independence and pro-Spanish pertenence demonstrations in
Barcelona.
5.
Aragon
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Aragon is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces, Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel, the current Statute of Autonomy declares Aragon a nationality of Spain. Aragons northern province of Huesca borders France and is positioned in the middle of the Pyrenees, within Spain, the community is flanked by Catalonia to the east, Valencia and Castile–La Mancha to the south, and Castile and León, La Rioja, and Navarre to the west. Aragon is home to many rivers—most notably, the river Ebro, Spains largest river in volume and it is also home to the Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees. As of 2015, the population of Aragon was 1,317,847, with more than half of it living in Zaragoza. As of 2015, half of Aragons population,50. 45%, Huesca is the only other city in the region with a population greater than 50,000. The majority of Aragonese citizens,71. 8%, live in the province of Zaragoza,17. 1% in Huesca and 11. 1% in Teruel, the population density of the region is the second lowest in Spain, only 26, 8/km2, after Castilla La Mancha. Only four cities have more than 20,000 inhabitants, Zaragoza 700,000, Huesca 50,000, Teruel 35,000 and Calatayud 20,000. Spanish is the language in most of Aragon, and it is the only official language, understood. The strip-shaped Catalan-speaking area in Aragon is often called La Franja, with such a low population density large areas of Aragon remain wild and relatively untouched. It is a land of natural contrasts, both in climate and geologically, from the green valleys and snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees to the dry plains. Aragons Pyrenees include splendid and varied mountain landscapes with soaring peaks, deep canyons, dense forests and its rugged peaks include the Aneto, the highest in the range, the misty Monte Perdido, Perdiguero, Cotiella and many others. The park is one of the last sanctuaries of birds of prey in the range. Many beautiful mountain butterflies and flowers can be seen in the summer, the principal valleys in the mountains include those of Hecho, Canfranc, Tena, Benasque and others. The green valleys hide pretty villages with nice Romanesque churches and typical Pyrenean houses with flowers on the balconies, the oldest Romanesque cathedral in Spain is located in the medieval town of Jaca in the very northern part of Huesca Province. In the Pyrenean foothills, or pre-Pyrenees, the Mallos de Riglos are a natural rock formation. Ancient castles nestle on lonely hills, the most famous being the magnificent Loarre Castle, further south, the Ebro valley, irrigated by the river Ebro, is a rich and fertile agricultural area covered with vast fields of wheat, barley and other fruit and vegetable crops. Many beautiful and little-known settlements, castles and Roman ruins dot the landscape here, some of the most notable towns here include Calatayud, Daroca, Sos del Rey Catolico, Caspe and others
Aragon
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Loarre, one of the most important Romanesque castles in Europe
Aragon
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Flag
Aragon
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View from Ordesa valley in the Aragonese Pyrenees
Aragon
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Circo de Soaso in
Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park
6.
Provinces of Spain
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Spain and its autonomous communities are divided into fifty provinces. The layout of Spains provinces closely follows the pattern of the division of the country carried out in 1833. The only major change of provincial borders since that time has been the sub-division of the Canary Islands into two rather than one. Historically, the provinces served mainly as transmission belts for policies enacted in Madrid, the importance of the provinces has declined since the adoption of the system of autonomous communities in the period of the Spanish transition to democracy. They nevertheless remain electoral districts for national elections and as references, for instance in postal addresses. A small town would normally be identified as being in, say, Valladolid province rather than the community of Castile. The provinces were the building-blocks from which the communities were created. Consequently, no province is divided more than one of these communities. Only two capitals of autonomous communities—Mérida in Extremadura and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia—are not also the capitals of provinces, seven of the autonomous communities comprise no more than one province each, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, and Navarra. These are sometimes referred to as uniprovincial communities, the table below lists the provinces of Spain. For each, the city is given, together with an indication of the autonomous community to which it belongs. The names of the provinces and their capitals are ordered according to the form in which they appear in the main Wikipedia articles describing them. Unless otherwise indicated, their Spanish-language names are the same, locally valid names in Spains other co-official languages are indicated where they differ
Provinces of Spain
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Provinces of Spain
7.
Province of Zaragoza
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Zaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is Zaragoza, which is also the capital of the autonomous community, other towns in Zaragoza include Calatayud, Borja, La Almunia de Doña Godina, Ejea de los Caballeros and Tarazona. Its area is 17,274 km² and it is the fourth-largest Spanish province by land area and its population is 973,252, of whom nearly three-quarters live in the capital, and its population density is 50. 95/km². It contains 292 municipalities, of more than half are villages with fewer than 300 people. The main language throughout the province is Spanish, although Catalan is spoken in the Bajo Aragón-Caspe comarca, the province of Zaragoza is bordered by the provinces of Lleida, Tarragona, Teruel, Guadalajara, Soria, La Rioja, Navarre, and Huesca. The southern and western side of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area and includes its highest point, the Ebro River crosses the province from west to east. Comarcas in the Zaragoza province, The following comarcas having their capital in Huesca Province include municipal terms within Zaragoza Province, Bajo Cinca, hoya de Huesca, Murillo de Gállego and Santa Eulalia de Gállego. Jacetania, Artieda, Mianos, Salvatierra de Esca and Sigüés, monegros, La Almolda, Bujaraloz, Farlete, Leciñena, Monegrillo and Perdiguera. List of municipalities in Zaragoza Official website
Province of Zaragoza
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The
Moncayo Massif seen from
Tarazona
Province of Zaragoza
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Flag
8.
Bajo Cinca/Baix Cinca
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Bajo Cinca or Baix Cinca is a comarca in eastern Aragon, Spain. It is named after river Cinca and this comarca is located in the southeastern corner of the Huesca province. The administrative capital is Fraga, with 13,592 inhabitants the largest town of the comarca, Bajo Cinca/Baix Cinca borders La Litera/La Llitera, Cinca Medio, Monegros and Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp in Aragon and Segrià and Ribera dEbre in Catalonia. This comarca belongs to the Catalan-speaking strip in eastern Aragon known as La Franja, the Catalan names of the towns are in brackets. Ballobar Belver de Cinca Candasnos Chalamera Fraga Mequinenza Ontiñena Osso de Cinca Torrente de Cinca Velilla de Cinca Zaidín Cinca Medio La Franja Official website
Bajo Cinca/Baix Cinca
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View of
Fraga with Saint Peter's church in front
Bajo Cinca/Baix Cinca
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Bajo Cinca/Baix Cinca
9.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
Daylight saving time
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Ancient
water clock that lets hour lengths vary with season.
Daylight saving time
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G. V. Hudson invented modern DST, proposing it first in 1895.
Daylight saving time
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Retailers generally favor DST.
United Cigar Stores hailed a 1918 DST bill.
Daylight saving time
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William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.
10.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
Central European Summer Time
–
light blue
11.
Zaragoza (province)
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Zaragoza, also called Saragossa in English, is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is Zaragoza, which is also the capital of the autonomous community, other towns in Zaragoza include Calatayud, Borja, La Almunia de Doña Godina, Ejea de los Caballeros and Tarazona. Its area is 17,274 km² and it is the fourth-largest Spanish province by land area and its population is 973,252, of whom nearly three-quarters live in the capital, and its population density is 50. 95/km². It contains 292 municipalities, of more than half are villages with fewer than 300 people. The main language throughout the province is Spanish, although Catalan is spoken in the Bajo Aragón-Caspe comarca, the province of Zaragoza is bordered by the provinces of Lleida, Tarragona, Teruel, Guadalajara, Soria, La Rioja, Navarre, and Huesca. The southern and western side of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area and includes its highest point, the Ebro River crosses the province from west to east. Comarcas in the Zaragoza province, The following comarcas having their capital in Huesca Province include municipal terms within Zaragoza Province, Bajo Cinca, hoya de Huesca, Murillo de Gállego and Santa Eulalia de Gállego. Jacetania, Artieda, Mianos, Salvatierra de Esca and Sigüés, monegros, La Almolda, Bujaraloz, Farlete, Leciñena, Monegrillo and Perdiguera. List of municipalities in Zaragoza Official website
Zaragoza (province)
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The
Moncayo Massif seen from
Tarazona
Zaragoza (province)
12.
River Segre
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The Segre is a river tributary to the Ebro with a basin comprising territories across three states, France, Andorra and Spain. It follows a western direction all along the Cerdanya Valley, and crosses the town Saillagouse and it enters Spain at Puigcerdà and continues west until La Seu dUrgell, where it meets the Valira River coming from Andorra. From this point it adopts a course across the pre-Pyrenees. It passes through Balaguer, Lleida and flows into the Ebro at Mequinenza, among its tributaries, Valira, Noguera Pallaresa, Noguera Ribagorzana, Cinca. The river Segre is a feature of the Lleidas geography. During the citys history several floods have occurred, the last in the late 1970s, there is also a dam on the river, near the natural park La Mitjana. Another park, Els Camps Elisis, is adjacent to the Segre, List of rivers of Spain List of rivers of Catalonia Environmental Action for River Segre -La Mitjana, Lleida
River Segre
–
The Segre in Lleida
13.
Ebro
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The Ebro or Ebre is one of the most important rivers on the Iberian Peninsula. It is the second longest river in the Iberian peninsula after the Tagus, the source of the river Ebro is in Fontibre, from the Latin words Fontes Iberis, source of the Ebro. Close by is the big artificial lake Embalse del Ebro created by the damming of the river, the upper Ebro rushes through rocky gorges in Burgos Province. Karst geological processes shaped the landscape of layers of carbonate rock of extensive limestone bedrock formed in an ancient seabed. Aragonite, a named for Aragon, attests to the fact that carbonates are abundant in the central Ebro Valley. The valley expands and the Ebros flow then becomes slower as its volume increases. There, larger tributaries flowing from the Central Pyrenees and the Iberian System discharge large amounts of water, as it flows through Zaragoza the Ebro, is already a sizeable river. There, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar stands next to the Ebro, the soils in most of the valley are primarily poor soils, calcareous, pebbly, stony, and sometimes salted with saltwater endorheic lagoons. The semi-arid interior of the Ebro Valley has either drought summers and it is covered with chaparral vegetation. Summers are hot and winters are cold, the dry summer season has temperatures of more than 35 °C, occasionally reaching over 40 °C. In winter, the temperatures drop below 0 °C. In some areas the vegetation depends heavily on moisture produced by condensation fogs and it is a continental Mediterranean climate with extreme temperatures. There are many ground frosts on clear nights, and sporadic snowfalls, the biomes are diverse in these Mediterranean climate zones, Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub. Hinterlands are particularly distinctive on account of extensive sclerophyll shrublands known as maquis, the dominant species are Quercus coccifera and Quercus ilex. These trees form monospecific communities or communities integrated with Pinus, Mediterranean buckthorns, Myrtus, Chamaerops humilis, junipers, Pistacia, Rosmarinus, Thymus, etc. The mountain vegetation is mostly coniferous forests that are drought adapted and their presence is related to the marine origin of the Ebro valley and the extensive marine deposits in the same area. After reaching Catalonia, the Ebro Valley narrows, and the river becomes constrained by mountain ranges, massive dams have been built in this area, such as the dams at Mequinenza, Riba-roja, Flix. In the final section of its course the river bends southwards, the massive calcareous cliffs of the Serra de Cardó range constrain the river during this last stretch, separating the Ebro Valley from the Mediterranean coastal area
Ebro
–
The Ebro River in Zaragoza
Ebro
–
Watershed of the Ebro
Ebro
–
The source of the Ebro in
Fontibre.
Ebro
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The Ebro River delta from space
14.
Moors
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Moors are not a distinct or self-defined people, and mainstream scholars observed in 1911 that The term Moors has no real ethnological value. Medieval and early modern Europeans variously applied the name to Arabs, Berber North Africans and Muslim Europeans. The term has also used in Europe in a broader, somewhat derogatory sense to refer to Muslims in general, especially those of Arab or Berber descent. During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced the names Ceylon Moors and Indian Moors in Sri Lanka, in 711, troops mostly formed by Moors from North Africa led the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The Iberian peninsula then came to be known in classical Arabic as Al-Andalus, in 827, the Moors occupied Mazara on Sicily, developing it as a port. They eventually consolidated the rest of the island and some of southern Italy, in 1224 the Muslims were expelled from Sicily to the settlement of Lucera, which was destroyed by European Christians in 1300. The fall of Granada in 1492 marked the end of Muslim rule in Iberia, the Berber tribes of the region were noted in Classical literature as Mauri, which was subsequently rendered as Moors in English and in related variations in other European languages. Mauri is recorded as the name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was Maurusii, in medieval Romance languages, variations of the Latin word for the Moors developed different applications and connotations. During the context of the Crusades and the Reconquista, the term Moors included the suggestion of infidels. Apart from these associations and context, Moor and Moorish designate a specific ethnic group speaking Hassaniya Arabic. They inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, in Niger and Mali, these peoples are also known as the Azawagh Arabs, after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. Some authors have pointed out that in modern colloquial Spanish use of the term moro is derogatory for Moroccans in particular, however, this designation has gained more acceptance in the south. In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, many modern Filipinos call the large, local Muslim minority concentrated in Mindanao, the word is a catch-all term, as Moro may come from several distinct ethno-linguistic groups such as the Maranao people. The term was introduced by Spanish colonisers, and has since been appropriated by Filipino Muslims as an endonym, moreno can mean dark-skinned in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Also in Spanish, morapio is a name for wine, especially that which has not been baptized or mixed with water. Among Spanish speakers, moro came to have a broader meaning, Moro refers to all things dark, as in Moor, moreno, etc. It was also used as a nickname, for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called Il Moro because of his dark complexion, in Portugal, mouro may refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted moura, where moor implies alien and non-Christian
Moors
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Depiction of Moors in
Iberia. Taken from the
Tale of Bayad and Riyad
Moors
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Depiction of three Moorish knights found on
Alhambra 's Ladies Tower
Moors
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Castillian ambassadors attempting to convince Moorish Almohad king
Abu Hafs Umar al-Murtada to join their alliance (contemporary depiction from The Cantigas de Santa María)
Moors
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Reconstruction of costumes of Moorish
nobility from a German book published in 1880
15.
Compromise of Caspe
–
The Aragonese succession laws at that time were based more on custom than any specific legislation, and even case law did not exist. All successions after the union of Catalonia with Aragon in 1137 had been to the eldest son, to the younger brother. However, very distant agnates had lost out to the daughter of the king in the 11th century, when Queen Petronilla succeeded over claims of the then agnates. J. N. Hillgarth writes, Among the descendants by the male line, T. N. Bisson writes that the issue was political rather than simply legal, a utilitarian question of which candidate with some dynastic claim would make the best king. The major candidates for succession were, Alfonso I, Duke of Gandia and he claimed the throne by both agnatic seniority and proximity of blood to the previous kings of Aragon. John of Ribagorza, brother of Alfonso, who inherited his claim, Ferdinand of Castile, matrilineal grandson of Peter IV of Aragon and nephew of Martin, claimed the throne by proximity of blood to the last king. Frederic, Count of Luna, grandson of Martin of Aragon, bastard of his son, Martin I of Sicily. James II, Count of Urgell, Martins brother-in-law and closest agnate as patrilineal great-grandson of Alfonso IV of Aragon, appointed Lieutenant of the Kingdom by Martin, he was heir male of the line and claimed the throne according to agnatic primogeniture. Louis of Anjou, matrilineal grandson of John I of Aragon and he was heir general to the line and claimed the throne according to cognatic primogeniture. As the Cortes dragged on, the situation became violent, Antón de Luna, an Aragonese supporter of Count James II of Urgell, assassinated the Archbishop of Zaragoza, García Fernández de Heredía. This event damaged the candidacy of James of Urgell and gave strength to the candidacy of Ferdinand of Castile, there was fighting in the streets, especially between partisans of Aragon and Valencia. The conflict divided the Kingdom of Aragon, with two rival Cortes meeting, one favorable to Ferdinand of Castile in Alcañiz, and another favorable to James II, the same occurred in Valencia, with Cortes in Traiguera and Vinaròs respectively. Furthermore, in 1410-1412 Ferdinands troops entered Aragon and Valencia to fight the Urgellists, the Trastamarist victory at the Battle of Morvedre on 27 February 1412 finally left Valencia on their hands. Pope Bendict XIII intervened and proposed a group of nine compromisarios. But a few later, the Alcañiz parliament chose not only the three compromisarios from Aragon but also the three Catalan and the three Valencian compromisarios too. The appointed compromisarios met in Caspe, to choose the next king, the majority of historians have agreed with the account of the election by historian Jerónimo Zurita. Zurita wrote his Anales de la Corona de Aragón from the original records, according to Zurita, the compromisarios had conflicting views about the succession to the deceased King Martin, and they voted differently as well. The votes were cast on Friday,24 June 1412, vincent Ferrer was the first one to speak, in a long speech, he voted for Ferdinand, and then Ram, his brother Bonifaci, Gualbes, Bardaixí, and Aranda simply joined him
Compromise of Caspe
–
Original deed of the compromise.
Compromise of Caspe
–
Salvador Vinegra 's depiction of the deliberations
Compromise of Caspe
–
Proclamation of Ferdinand I as king of Aragon, by
Dióscoro Puebla
Compromise of Caspe
–
Portrait of Ferdinand of Castile, proclaimed king after the Compromise.
16.
Tortosa
–
Tortosa is the capital of the comarca of Baix Ebre, in Catalonia, Spain. Before Tortosa, across the river, rise the massive Ports de Tortosa-Beseit mountains, the area around Mont Caro and other high summits are often covered with snow in the winter. Bítem,1.139, includes Santa Rosa Campredó,1.168, Jesús,3.755 Els Reguers,679 Tortosa,27.131 Vinallop,363, Tortosa is probably identical to the ancient Hibera, capital of Ilercavonia. This may be the ancient settlement the remains of which have found on the hill named Castillo de la Zuda. In Roman times, the town adopted the name Dertosa, after more than 400 years of Muslim rule, the city was conquered by the Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona in 1148, as part of the Second Crusade. The siege of Tortosa was narrated by the Genovese chronicler and diplomat Caffaro, after its conquest, the city and its territory were divided among the victors, with multiple lands being granted to foreign crusaders and to the military and religious orders. Formerly there was a line between Tortosa and Alcañiz, opening a communication gate between this region and Aragon. Construction work began in 1891, but it was haphazard and the first trains between Alcañiz and Tortosa began only in 1942, the last stretch between Tortosa and Sant Carles de la Ràpita was never completed before the line was terminated by RENFE in 1973. Castle of Sant Joan, or Suda, commanding the city from a 59-metre-high hill, though the Romans were the first to fortify the place, the current structure dates to Muslim Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III. After the conquest by Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, in 1148, it became a residence of the Montcada and the Knights Templar, the Cathedral, begun in 1347 and consecrated in 1597. Bishop Palace Convent of Santa Clara, founded in 1283, montagut Palace Despuig Palace Oliver de Boteller Palace Tortosa is twinned with, Avignon, France Tortosa has a mediterranean climate in the Köppen climate classification. The precipitation pattern differs from the norm for this type in that winter months have less precipitation than autumn. Felip Pedrell, composer and musicologist, was born in Tortosa, bishop of Tortosa Disputation of Tortosa Battle of Dertosa Antoni Virgili, Angli cum multis aliis alienigenis, crusade settlers in Tortosa, Journal of Medieval History,35,3, 297-312
Tortosa
–
Tortosa
Tortosa
–
Ebre river in Tortosa
17.
Siege of Mequinenza
–
The Siege of Mequinenza saw a 16, 000-man Imperial French corps commanded by Louis Gabriel Suchet invest a 1, 000-strong Spanish garrison under Colonel Carbon. Mequinenza and its castle were captured by the French after an operation lasting three weeks. The action occurred during the Peninsular War, which formed part of the Napoleonic Wars, Mequinenza is located at the confluence of the Ebro and Segre Rivers about 211 kilometres west of Barcelona. Mequinenzas town wall was old and weak, but its castle perched on a spur above the town was a formidable position. It took Suchets military engineers two weeks to construct a road up the mountain. Once the road was ready, the French dragged their siege cannons to the top, the town was successfully stormed on 5 June. After eight days of bombardment the castle was a ruin and Carbon surrendered. Since Mequinenza was at the head of navigation on the Ebro, during the Second Siege of Zaragoza, its Spanish defenders bitterly resisted the French for many months. The city finally fell on 20 February 1809 and its garrison was killed or captured. With most of Aragons defenders wiped out, the French III Corps under General of Division Jean-Andoche Junot, the powerful fortress of Jaca meekly surrendered to Mortier on 21 March 1809 and the towns of Monzón and Fraga were soon occupied. However, the castle of Mequinenza declined to surrender when summoned by a French column, after Mortier in person appeared before the castle with a brigade of infantry, its commander again refused to capitulate. The French marshal withdrew, planning to return after conquering the remainder of eastern Aragon, however, Emperor Napoleon issued orders on 5 April for the V Corps to withdraw to Tudela. The War of the Fifth Coalition was about to start and the emperor knew he might need Mortiers troops to reinforce his army in Germany and this left the III Corps to hold Aragon with only 15,000 troops. At the same time the emperor replaced Junot with General of Division Louis Gabriel Suchet, the Spanish Ulcer, A History of the Peninsular War. A History of the Peninsular War Volume II, a History of the Peninsular War Volume III
Siege of Mequinenza
–
Mequinenza lies on the Segre, overlooked by a castle on a mountain spur. The Ebro flows from the west, unseen in the photo, down the valley behind the spur.
18.
Louis Gabriel Suchet
–
Louis-Gabriel Suchet, Duke of Albufera, was a Marshal of France and one of Napoleons most brilliant generals. Suchet was born to a manufacturer in Lyon. He originally intended to follow his fathers business but, serving as a volunteer in the cavalry of the National Guard at Lyon, in 1793, he was serving as a battalion chief when he captured the British general Charles OHara at Toulon. During the 1796 Italian campaign, he was wounded at Cerea on 11 October. In October 1797, he was promoted to command of a half-brigade and his services in the Tyrol under Joubert that year and in Switzerland under Brune over the next were recognized by his promotion to the rank of brigadier general. He took no part in the Egyptian campaign but was made Brunes chief of staff in August and restored the efficiency, in July 1799, he was promoted to division general and made Jouberts chief of staff in Italy. In 1800, he was named second-in-command to Masséna and he took a prominent part in the rest of the Italian campaign up to the armistice of Treviso. In the campaigns of 1805 and 1806, he enhanced his reputation at the Battles of Austerlitz, Saalfeld, Jena, Pułtusk. He obtained the title of count on 19 March 1808, ordered to Spain, he took part in the Siege of Saragossa, after which he was named commander of the army of Aragon and governor of that region. Within two years, he brought the area into complete submission by wise and adroit administration no less than by his brilliant valor, beaten by the Spanish at Alcañiz, he sprung back and soundly defeated the army of Blake y Joyes at María on 14 June 1809. On 22 April 1810, he defeated ODonnell at Lleida, after the siege of Tarragona, he was named marshal of France on 8 July 1811. In 1812, he captured Valencia, for which he was rewarded with the dukedom of Albufera nearby, when the tide turned against France, Suchet defended his conquests one by one until compelled to withdraw from Spain, after which he took part in Soults defensive campaign of 1814. The restored Bourbon king Louis XVIII made him a peer of France on 4 June with a seat in the upper house, during Napoleons brief restoration, Suchet was given command of an army on the Alpine frontier. He died in the Castle of Saint-Joseph near Marseille on 3 January 1826 and he wrote his memoirs in two volumes from 1829 to 34. The chicken dish poularde à la dAlbuféra is named after him and he married Honorine Anthoine de Saint-Joseph, a niece of Julie Clary, the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, on 16 November 1808
Louis Gabriel Suchet
–
Louis Gabriel Suchet, 1st Duc d'Albufera
Louis Gabriel Suchet
–
A divisional commander in the campaigns against the
Third and
Fourth Coalitions, Suchet numbered among the few senior French officers serving in Spain who managed to preserve their reputation intact. (Portrait by
Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin)
Louis Gabriel Suchet
–
Suchet's grave in Paris’
Père Lachaise Cemetery, 2005
19.
Battle of the Ebro
–
The Battle of the Ebro was the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War. These sparsely populated areas saw the largest array of armies in the war, the results of the battle were disastrous for the Second Spanish Republic, with tens of thousands of dead and wounded and little effect on the advance of the Nationalists. By 1938, the Second Spanish Republic was in dire straits, then, the Nationalists launched an offensive in Aragon in March without giving their enemies a chance to recover. Fighting in the middle of winter temperatures, the exhausted Republican army could offer only feeble resistance. By April 15, Francos troops reached the Mediterranean Sea at Vinaròs, as a result, the Nationalist army conquered Lleida and the hydroelectric dams that provided much of the Catalan industrial areas with electricity. Nevertheless, on 17 March 1938, after the Anschluss, the French government decided to reopen the frontier, a new army, the Ebros army, was then formed. In response to the situation, Spanish premier Juan Negrín approved a plan by General Vicente Rojo Lluch to launch attacks against the main Francoist forces advancing towards Valencia. The purpose of the attacks was to relieve the pressure on Valencia and Catalonia, in order to distract the Nationalist armies that were advancing towards Valencia, the Popular Republican Army decided upon an offensive in the lower Ebro basin. The size of the army was important but it lacked enough air, the Ebro Army was formed on May 15 under Lieutenant Colonel Juan Modesto, merging the 15th and the 5th Army Corps. It would receive reinforcements from the 12th and 18th Army Corps as soon as the battle began, 3d Popular Republican Army Division, led by Commander Esteban Cabezos Morente, including the 31st, 33rd and 60th mixed brigades. 27d Division, under Commander Manuel Alvarez, including the 226th, 227th and 59th brigades, in mid-July the 15th Army Corps was reinforced by the 16th Popular Republican Army Division of the 12th Army Corps, the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, anti-aircraft guns, armoured vehicles and army engineers. 46th Division led by Commander Valentín González El Campesino, including the 10th, 60th, 45th Division, international division led by Lieutenant Colonel Hans Kahle, including the 12th Garibaldi, 14th Marsellesa and 139th mixed brigades. The 12th Army Corps led by Lieutenant Colonel Etelvino Vega, was based at Bisbal de Falset, 16th Division led by Commander Manuel Mora Torres, including the 23rd, 44th Division led by Ramón Pastor, including the 140th, 144th and 145th mixed brigades. 60th Division led by Commander Manuel Ferràndiz, including the 95th, 84th and 224th mixed brigades, 43a División, led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Beltrán Casaña lEsquinazau, including the 72nd, 102nd and 130th mixed brigades. The Morocco Army Corps was positioned on the bank of the Ebro. Later, the Maestrazgo Army Corps was sent as reinforcements, led by General Rafael García Valiño, General Fidel Davila The Morocco Army Corps Cuerpo del Ejército de Marruecos led by General Juan Yagüe, 40a División 50a División, led by Colonel Campos. The Maestrazgo Army Corps Cuerpo del Ejército del Maestrazgo was led by General Rafael García Valiño, 1a División de Navarra, led by Mohammed el Mizzian. 74a División la Leona, led by Coronel Arias, 13a División, led by Fernando Barron
Battle of the Ebro
–
Republican troops crossing the Ebro River
Battle of the Ebro
–
View of
Corbera d'Ebre with the ruins of the old town that was destroyed during the Battle of the Ebro and kept as a memorial
Battle of the Ebro
–
The
Auts, low, scruffy hills south of
Mequinensa where a whole Republican division was captured and slaughtered
Battle of the Ebro
–
Republican antiaircraft artillery in the Battle of the Ebro.
20.
Spanish Civil War
–
Ultimately, the Nationalists won, and Franco then ruled Spain for the next 36 years, from April 1939 until his death in November 1975. Sanjurjo was killed in an accident while attempting to return from exile in Portugal. The coup was supported by units in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, Pamplona, Burgos, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Cádiz, Córdoba. However, rebelling units in some important cities—such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, and Málaga—did not gain control, Spain was thus left militarily and politically divided. The Nationalists and the Republican government fought for control of the country, the Nationalist forces received munitions and soldiers from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while the Republican side received support from the Communist Soviet Union and leftist populist Mexico. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, operated a policy of non-intervention. The Nationalists advanced from their strongholds in the south and west and they also besieged Madrid and the area to its south and west for much of the war. Those associated with the losing Republicans were persecuted by the victorious Nationalists, with the establishment of a dictatorship led by General Franco in the aftermath of the war, all right-wing parties were fused into the structure of the Franco regime. The war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired, organized purges occurred in territory captured by Francos forces to consolidate the future regime. A significant number of killings took place in areas controlled by the Republicans, the extent to which Republican authorities took part in killings in Republican territory varied. The 19th century was a turbulent time for Spain and those in favour of reforming Spains government vied for political power with conservatives, who tried to prevent reforms from taking place. Some liberals, in a tradition that had started with the Spanish Constitution of 1812, sought to limit the power of the monarchy of Spain, the reforms of 1812 did not last after King Ferdinand VII dissolved the Constitution and ended the Trienio Liberal government. Twelve successful coups were carried out between 1814 and 1874, until the 1850s, the economy of Spain was primarily based on agriculture. There was little development of an industrial or commercial class. The land-based oligarchy remained powerful, a number of people held large estates called latifundia as well as all the important government positions. In 1868 popular uprisings led to the overthrow of Queen Isabella II of the House of Bourbon, two distinct factors led to the uprisings, a series of urban riots and a liberal movement within the middle classes and the military concerned with the ultra-conservatism of the monarchy. In 1873 Isabellas replacement, King Amadeo I of the House of Savoy, abdicated owing to increasing pressure. After the restoration of the Bourbons in December 1874, Carlists and Anarchists emerged in opposition to the monarchy, alejandro Lerroux, Spanish politician and leader of the Radical Republican Party, helped bring republicanism to the fore in Catalonia, where poverty was particularly acute
Spanish Civil War
–
Republican International Brigadiers at the
Battle of Belchite ride on a
T-26 tank
Spanish Civil War
–
King
Amadeo I of Spain
Spanish Civil War
–
Republican volunteers at
Teruel, 1936.
Spanish Civil War
–
Republican troops at
Guadalajara, 1937
21.
Auts
–
Auts is a mountain range west of the Ebro river in the Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp comarca, Aragon, Spain. The Auts Range is located about 9 km north of Fayón, the ridges highest point is Alt dels Auts, a 434 m high summit. The Auts are desolate-looking limestone mountains, smooth, with low and scruffy vegetation, in some documents in the Spanish language, these hills appear under the name Sierra de Mequinenza, but they are actually not a proper sierra. The name Auts comes most likely from an ancient Catalan word for heights, alts in modern Catalan and these moderately high, dry mountains were the scenario of one of the most bloody confrontations during the Battle of the Ebro in the Spanish Civil War. On 25 July 1938 the 42nd Division of the Spanish Republican Army successfully crossed the river in this area, initially the feat of the Republican troops was hailed as a great victory by the Spanish Republic, eager to see a positive outcome of the Battle of the Ebro effort. But the 226th and 227th mixed brigades of the division were soon surrounded, after having suffered a great number of casualties the few battered survivors of the division had to cross back the Ebro River. There is a monument to the soldiers who died in the Auts at the feet of the range near the road leading to Mequinensa. com
Auts
–
Auts
22.
La Franja
–
La Franja is the area of Catalan-speaking territories of Aragon bordering Catalonia, in Spain. It literally means the strip and can more properly be called Franja dAragó. The thin strip of land is very diverse geographically, ranging from valleys in the Pyrenees to the lands by the Ebro. The term is used in neighbouring Catalonia, especially by Catalan nationalists. The use of a term to refer to the area of Aragon bordering Catalonia as based on linguistic criteria is recent. This term was maintained in the half of the 20th century by Catalan linguists such as Joan Giraldo, along with other terms such as Marques dAragó. Whichever term is used, they all refer to the eastern Catalan-speaking area of Aragon and these terms all originated in Catalonia but later became popular in La Franja itself. They are therefore Catalonia-centered and hence the Ponent reference in the term La Franja del Ponent, later on, alternative denominations such as Aragón Oriental, Franja Oriental or Franja de Levante, all meaning roughly Eastern Aragon or Eastern Strip were created in Aragon. It was finally decided by the ecclesiastic canon judges in 2005 that the 113 works of art belong to the Barbastro-Monzón diocese, in the meantime, the works of art remain located in the Diocese Museum of Lleida. On July 1,2008 an agreement between the two dioceses was announced, again stating that the art pieces would return to the Barbastro-Monzón diocese, then the Vatican itself urged the return of the pieces to Aragon, to no avail. The Catalan language is spoken by a significant proportion of the population of La Franja, during the fourth session of the Cortes de Aragón under the PP-PAR coalition government the Special Commission Report on the Language Policy of Aragon was published. The Catalan-speaking lands are thus reduced to a total of 57 municipalities with an area of 4,137.2 km² with a population of 45,984. The situation is reversed according to the Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa with the Franja having an area of 5,370 km², all the municipalities which it adds to those of the Avant-project and of Ribagorza and therefore belong to the Province of Huesca. The table to the details the population nuclei and official area. Population centres belonging to the municipality of Graus, population figures according to Ayuntamiento, area according to GREC. net. Population centres belonging to the municipality of Capella, population 2004, area according to GREC. net. Population centres belonging to the municipality of Graus, population according to Ayuntamiento, area according to GREC. net. There is no policy on official toponymy in the Franja
La Franja
–
A graffiti on a road sign in
Bisaurri. The road sign is written in Spanish and the graffiti says " En català " (In Catalan)
La Franja
–
The
Catalan /
Valencian cultural domain
23.
Catalan language
–
Catalan is a Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain and adjoining parts of France. It is the national and only language of Andorra, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands. It also has status in the commune of Alghero, situated on the northwestern coast of the island of Sardinia. All these territories are often called Catalan Countries. 4% with Catalan and 47. 5% only Spanish, in order to integrate newcomers, the Generalitat de Catalunya spends part of its annual budget on the promotion of the use of Catalan in Catalonia and in other territories. Catalan evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees, during the Low Middle Ages it saw a golden age as the literary and dominant language of the Crown of Aragon, and was widely used all over the Mediterranean. The union of Aragon with the territories of Spain in 1479 marked the start of the decline of the language. In 1659 Spain ceded Northern Catalonia to France, and Catalan was banned in both states in the early 18th century, 19th-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, which culminated in the 1913 orthographic standardization, and the official status of the language during the Second Spanish Republic. However, the Francoist dictatorship banned the use of Catalan in schools and in the public administration, there is no parallel in Europe for such a large, bilingual, non-state speech community. Catalan dialects are relatively uniform, and are mutually intelligible and they are divided into two blocks, Eastern and Western, differing mostly in pronunciation. The terms Catalan and Valencian are two varieties of the same language, there are two institutions regulating the two standard varieties, the Institute of Catalan Studies in Catalonia and the Valencian Academy of the Language in the Valencian Community. Catalan shares many traits with its neighboring Romance languages, thus, the similarities are naturally most notable with eastern Occitan. Nouns have two genders, and two numbers, pronouns additionally can have a neuter gender, and some are also inflected for case and politeness, and can be combined in very complex ways. Verbs are split in several paradigms and are inflected for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, in terms of pronunciation, Catalan has many words ending in a wide variety of consonants and some consonant clusters, in contrast with many other Romance languages. The word Catalan derives from the territory of Catalonia, itself of disputed etymology, in English, the term referring to a person first appears in the mid 14th century as Catelaner, followed in the 15th century as Catellain. It is attested a language name since at least 1652, Catalan can be pronounced as /ˈkætəlæn/, /kætəˈlæn/ or /ˈkætələn/. The endonym is pronounced /kə. təˈɫa/ in the Eastern Catalan dialects, in the Valencian Community, the term valencià is frequently used instead. The names Catalan and Valencian are two names for the same language, see also status of Valencian below. By the 9th century, Catalan had evolved from Vulgar Latin on both sides of the end of the Pyrenees, as well as the territories of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis to the south
Catalan language
–
Homilies d'Organyà (12th century)
Catalan language
–
Catalan
Catalan language
–
Fragment of the Greuges de Guitard Isarn (ca. 1080–1095), one of the earliest texts written almost completely in Catalan, predating the famous
Homilies d'Organyà by a century
Catalan language
–
Official Decree Prohibiting the Catalan Language in France
24.
Agathoclia
–
Saint Agathoclia is venerated as a patron saint of Mequinenza, Aragón, Spain. Her feast day is September 17, tradition states that she was a virgin Christian slave owned by two people who had converted to paganism from Christianity, named Nicolas and Paulina. They subjected Agathoclia to regular physical abuse, including whipping and other violence and she repeatedly refused to do so. Her owners then subjected her to a trial by a local magistrate. There too, she refused to renounce Christianity, which subjected her to savage mangling from the authorities, when she was found guilty, her sentence included having her tongue cut out, a nonfatal injury. There is some disagreement about how Agathoclia met her death, some sources say that her mistress Paulina poured burning coals on her neck. Other sources say that she herself was cast into fire, the town of Mequinenza celebrates festivals in honor of Santa Agatoclia from September 16 to 20. There is also a confraternity in the dedicated to the saint
Agathoclia
–
Miniature from the
Menologion of Basil II
25.
Flix
–
Flix is a town in the comarca of Ribera dEbre, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on a promontory by the Ebro river, the town occupied an important strategic position, situated on the Madrid–Barcelona railway line, it expanded in the early twentieth century with the construction of a hydroelectric power station and a large chemical plant, Electroquímica de Flix. There is excellent fishing in the bend in the river. Every year there is an international fishing competition at Flix. Flix was the site of a battle in the Spanish Civil War in 1938, the Battle of the Iron Bridge was fought between the International Brigades and the Fascists as part of the Battle of the Ebro. The operation was initially a success for the republicans with the construction of the bridge nearly complete by the 3rd Division. However at the end they had lost 3,000 soldiers, today there is a memorial to this battle at Flix. In 2005 the existence of a vast polluted area on the shores of the Flix Reservoir was disclosed, the environmental disaster involving large quantities of toxic waste was caused by the Ercros chemical factory, located by the shore of the artificial lake. Following this disclosure an ambitious plan to clean up the area has been drawn and this plan involves the building of containment barriers and the removal and treatment of the hazardous chemical waste. The population of Flix has grown since 1900 and peaked in the 1980s
Flix
–
Flix
Flix
–
The Flix reservoir and the controversial chemical plant
26.
Wels catfish
–
The wels catfish, also called sheatfish, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. It has been introduced to Western Europe as a fish and is now found from the United Kingdom all the way east to Kazakhstan and China and south to Greece. It is a freshwater fish recognizable by its broad, flat head. Wels catfish can live for at least fifty years and have good hearing to compensate for their poor sight. The wels catfish lives in large, warm lakes and deep and it prefers to remain in sheltered locations such as holes in the riverbed, sunken trees, etc. It consumes its food in the water or in the deep. Wels catfish are kept in ponds as food fish. Like most freshwater bottom feeders, the wels catfish lives on annelid worms, gastropods, insects, crustaceans, larger species have been observed to eat frogs, mice, rats, aquatic birds such as ducks and can also be cannibalistic. Out of all beaching behaviors observed and filmed in this study, stable isotope analyses of catfish stomach contents using carbon 13 and nitrogen 15 revealed a highly variable dietary composition of terrestrial birds. The wels catfishs mouth contains lines of small teeth, two long barbels on the upper jaw and four shorter barbels on the lower jaw. It has an anal fin that extends to the caudal fin. It relies largely on hearing and smell for hunting prey, but its eyes have a tapetum lucidum, providing the advantage of night vision, with its sharp pectoral fins, it creates an eddy to disorient its victim, which the predator sucks into its mouth and swallows whole. Clear water will give the fish a black color, while muddy water will often tend to produce green-brown specimens, the underside is always pale yellow to white in colour. Albinistic specimens are known to exist, the wels swims by undulating its long, muscular tail in a wave-like action, similar to crocodilians. With a possible total length up to 5 m and a weight of over 300 kg. However, such lengths are rare and were hard to prove during the last century, in 1856, K. T. Kessler wrote about specimens from Dniepr which were over 5 m long and weighed up to 400 kg. Most wels catfish are mainly about 1. 3–1.6 m long, at 1.5 m they can weigh 15–20 kg and at 2.2 m they can weigh 65 kg. Only under exceptionally good living circumstances can the wels catfish reach lengths of more than 2 m, as with the record wels catfish of Kiebingen, which was 2.49 m long and weighed 89 kg
Wels catfish
–
Wels catfish
Wels catfish
–
Silurus glanis.
Syr Darya River in
Kazakhstan,
Baikonur area.
Wels catfish
27.
Silurus glanis
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The wels catfish, also called sheatfish, is a large species of catfish native to wide areas of central, southern, and eastern Europe, in the basins of the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. It has been introduced to Western Europe as a fish and is now found from the United Kingdom all the way east to Kazakhstan and China and south to Greece. It is a freshwater fish recognizable by its broad, flat head. Wels catfish can live for at least fifty years and have good hearing to compensate for their poor sight. The wels catfish lives in large, warm lakes and deep and it prefers to remain in sheltered locations such as holes in the riverbed, sunken trees, etc. It consumes its food in the water or in the deep. Wels catfish are kept in ponds as food fish. Like most freshwater bottom feeders, the wels catfish lives on annelid worms, gastropods, insects, crustaceans, larger species have been observed to eat frogs, mice, rats, aquatic birds such as ducks and can also be cannibalistic. Out of all beaching behaviors observed and filmed in this study, stable isotope analyses of catfish stomach contents using carbon 13 and nitrogen 15 revealed a highly variable dietary composition of terrestrial birds. The wels catfishs mouth contains lines of small teeth, two long barbels on the upper jaw and four shorter barbels on the lower jaw. It has an anal fin that extends to the caudal fin. It relies largely on hearing and smell for hunting prey, but its eyes have a tapetum lucidum, providing the advantage of night vision, with its sharp pectoral fins, it creates an eddy to disorient its victim, which the predator sucks into its mouth and swallows whole. Clear water will give the fish a black color, while muddy water will often tend to produce green-brown specimens, the underside is always pale yellow to white in colour. Albinistic specimens are known to exist, the wels swims by undulating its long, muscular tail in a wave-like action, similar to crocodilians. With a possible total length up to 5 m and a weight of over 300 kg. However, such lengths are rare and were hard to prove during the last century, in 1856, K. T. Kessler wrote about specimens from Dniepr which were over 5 m long and weighed up to 400 kg. Most wels catfish are mainly about 1. 3–1.6 m long, at 1.5 m they can weigh 15–20 kg and at 2.2 m they can weigh 65 kg. Only under exceptionally good living circumstances can the wels catfish reach lengths of more than 2 m, as with the record wels catfish of Kiebingen, which was 2.49 m long and weighed 89 kg
Silurus glanis
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Wels catfish
Silurus glanis
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Silurus glanis.
Syr Darya River in
Kazakhstan,
Baikonur area.
Silurus glanis
28.
United Left (Spain)
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United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986, bringing together several left-wing political organizations. IU was founded as a coalition of seven parties. Despite that, IU brings together other regional parties, political organizations, with this premise, the PCE began developing closer relations with other left-wing groups, with the vision of forming a broad left coalition. IU slowly improved its results, reaching 9% in 1989 and nearly 11% in 1996, in contrast to the PCE prior to the formation of IU, which pursued a more moderate political course, the new IU adopted a more radical strategy and ideology of confrontation against the PSOE. IU generally opposed cooperating with the PSOE, and identified it as a right-wing party and they also adopted a universal policy in favor of cooperating with the PSOE at local level. Following the election of Cayo Lara as leader in 2008, however, IU currently has around 70,000 members. Izquierda Unida de la Comunidad de Madrid was expelled in 2015, currently in the process of creating a new federation without a separate legal entity
United Left (Spain)
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Julio Anguita, general coordinator of United Left from 1989 to 1999.
United Left (Spain)
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United Left Izquierda Unida
29.
Aragonese Party
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The Aragonese Party is a political party which advocates the interests of Aragon within Spain. The party was founded in 1978 under the name Aragonese Regionalist Party, the founders of PAR included Emilio Eiroa, who later served as the President of the Government of Aragon from 1991 to 1993. PAR had representation in the European Parliament where it sat in the European Coalition group
Aragonese Party
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Aragonese Party
Spain
Aragon
