Comarques of Catalonia

Present-day division of Catalonia in comarques

This is a list of the comarques (singular "comarca") of Catalonia (Spain). A comarca is roughly equivalent to a US "county" or a UK "district". However, in the context of Catalonia, the term "county" can be a bit misleading, because in medieval Catalonia, the most important rulers were counts, notably the Counts of Barcelona and of Urgell. Comarques have no particular relation to the "counties" that were ruled by counts.

Although today the comarques are officially recognized, for centuries they had existed unofficially, with citizens identifying with a particular comarca in the same way that people in other parts of the world might identify with a particular region.

In some cases, comarques consist of rural areas and many small villages centering around an important town, where the people of the region traditionally go to shop or to sell their goods. This is the case of comarques such as the Pla d'Estany, centered around the town of Banyoles, or the Ripollès, centered around the town of Ripoll. In other cases, comarques are larger areas with many important population centers that have traditionally been considered part of the same region, as in the case of the Empordà or Vallès.

The current official division of Catalonia into comarques originates in an order of the semi-autonomous Catalan government under the Spanish Republic in 1936. It was superseded after the 1939 victory of Francisco Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War, but restored in 1987 by the re-established Generalitat of Catalonia. Since the definition of comarques is traditionally a non-official and sometimes ambiguous, many new proposals have been made since the comarques were first officially designated as different towns attempt to adjust the official comarques with what they consider to be their traditional comarca. As a result, some revisions to the official division were made in 1988, adding Pla de l'Estany, Pla d'Urgell and Alta Ribagorça) and in 1990, when some borders were adjusted. As of 2004^[update] there was discussion of possibly further subdividing some of the comarques. [1]

See also lists of municipalities for the Catalan provinces of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Tarragona.

The articles in naming

Because the Catalan language has a relatively complex set of rules for the form of the definite article, and because (in Catalan) the names of comarques (except for Osona) typically take the definite article in any position except as the subject of a sentence, the following list indicates the appropriate form of the definite article for each comarca. Because Val d'Aran is an Aranese-speaking area, it is often written as "era Val d'Aran", using the Aranese definite article.

List of comarques

Comarca	Capital	Population	Area (km²)
l'Alt Camp	Valls	35,635	544.7
l'Alt Empordà	Figueres	99,321	1,357.5
l'Alt Penedès	Vilafranca del Penedès	80,976	592.4
l'Alt Urgell	La Seu d'Urgell	19,105	1,446.9
l'Alta Ribagorça	Pont de Suert	3,477	426,8
l'Anoia	Igualada	93,529	866.6
el Bages	Manresa	155,112	1,295.2
el Baix Camp	Reus	145,675	695.3
el Baix Ebre	Tortosa	66,369	987.9
el Baix Empordà	La Bisbal d'Empordà	102,566	700.5
el Baix Llobregat	Sant Feliu de Llobregat	692,892	486.5
el Baix Penedès	El Vendrell	61,256	295.5
el Barcelonès	Barcelona	2,093,670	143.1
el Berguedà	Berga	37,995	1,182.5
la Cerdanya	Puigcerdà	14,158	546.4
la Conca de Barberà	Montblanc	18,766	648.9
el Garraf	Vilanova i la Geltrú	108,194	184.1
les Garrigues	Les Borges Blanques	18,999	799.7
la Garrotxa	Olot	47,747	734.2
el Gironès	Girona	136,543	575.5
el Maresme	Mataró	356,545	396.9
el Montsià	Amposta	57,550	708.7
la Noguera	Balaguer	34,744	1,733.0
Osona	Vic	129,543	1,263.8
el Pallars Jussà	Tremp	12,057	1,290.0
el Pallars Sobirà	Sort	6,174	1,355.2
el Pla de l'Estany	Banyoles	24.347	262.7
el Pla d'Urgell	Mollerussa	29,723	304.5
el Priorat	Falset	9,196	496.2
la Ribera d'Ebre	Móra d'Ebre	21,656	825.3
el Ripollès	Ripoll	25,744	958.7
la Segarra	Cervera	18,497	721.2
el Segrià	Lleida	166,090	1,393.7
la Selva	Santa Coloma de Farners	117,393	995.5
el Solsonès	Solsona	11,466	998.6
el Tarragonès	Tarragona	181,374	317.1
la Terra Alta	Gandesa	12,196	740.0
l'Urgell	Tàrrega	31,026	586.2
era Val d'Aran	Vielha e Mijaran	7,691	620.5
el Vallès Occidental	Sabadell, Terrassa	736,682	580.7
el Vallès Oriental	Granollers	321,431	851.9

Comarcal revisions

The following municipalities changed comarca in 1990, mostly following local referendums:

Municipality	Former comarca	Current comarca
Alfarràs	Noguera	Segrià
Arbolí	Priorat	Baix Camp
Bonastre	Tarragonès	Baix Penedès
Caldes de Montbui	Vallès Occidental	Vallès Oriental
Castellet i la Gornal	Garraf	Alt Penedès
Esplugues de Llobregat	Barcelonès	Baix Llobregat
Els Garidells	Tarragonès	Alt Camp
Masllorenç	Alt Camp	Baix Penedès
La Molsosa	Anoia	Solsonès
Montesquiu	Ripollès	Osona
Montornès de Segarra	Urgell	Segarra
Olesa de Bonesvalls	Garraf	Alt Penedès
La Portella	Noguera	Segrià
Santa Maria de Besora	Ripollès	Osona
Sant Jaume d'Enveja	Baix Ebre	Montsià
Sant Just Desvern	Barcelonès	Baix Llobregat
Sant Quirze de Besora	Ripollès	Osona
Vallfogona de Riucorb	Segarra	Conca de Barberà
Vidrà	Ripollès	Osona

Historical comarques

There are some other comarques which are often referred as historical comarques of Catalonia, because their present territory was part of the former Principality of Catalonia, but they are not currently within the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.

Comarca	Capital	Current status
el Rosselló (Roussillon)	Perpinyà (Perpignan)	Northern Catalonia / Part of France
l'Alta Cerdanya	Font-romeu (Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via)	Northern Catalonia / Part of France
el Capcir	Els Angles (Les Angles)	Northern Catalonia / Part of France
el Vallespir	Ceret (Céret)	Northern Catalonia / Part of France
el Conflent	Prada de Conflent (Prades)	Northern Catalonia / Part of France

Administration and government

In the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, the comarca exists as a local government area, and has a representative consell comarcal (comarcal council).

See also

• Cerdanya
• Urgell
• Comarques of the Valencian Community
• List of Aragonese comarcas
• Comarcas of Spain

External links

• (Catalan) The Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya is an excellent source of statistical information for Catalonia, down to the level of individual municipalities. It is also our source for which municipalities are in which comarca. Parts of the site are in English and Spanish, although most of it is in Catalan.
• (Catalan) Comarcàlia - Information about the various comarques in a variety of languages, including English. Includes good maps down to the level of individual municipalities (or, as they choose to translate, "boroughs").
• (Catalan) History of present comarcal division. Catalonia, La Franja and Northern Catalonia.