Aragon

Comunidad Autónoma de
**Aragón**

Capital	Zaragoza
Area - total - % of Spain	Ranked 4th 47 719 km² 9,4%
Population - Total (2003) - % of Spain - Density	Ranked 11th 1 217 514 2,9% 25,51/km²
Demonym - English - Spanish	Aragonese aragonés
Statute of Autonomy	August 16, 1982
ISO 3166-2	AR
Parliamentary representation Congress seats Senate seats	13 2
President	Marcelino Iglesias Ricou (PSOE)
Gobierno de Aragón

Aragon (Spanish: Aragón; Catalan: Aragó) is an autonomous community of north-eastern Spain. It has an area of 47,719 km² with a population of 1,217,514 (2003).

Aragon is bounded on the north by France, on the east by Catalonia, on the south by Valencia, and on the west by Castile-La Mancha, Castile-Leon, La Rioja, and Navarre (Spanish: Navarra). It comprises the provinces of Zaragoza (English: Saragossa), Huesca, and Teruel.

Its capital is Zaragoza.

In addition to its three provinces, Aragon is subdivided into 33 comarcas (counties).

Table of contents

Language

In addition to Spanish, there is an original Aragonese language, still spoken in some valleys of the Pyrenees, which is different from the Aragonese dialect of Castilian Spanish language.

Catalan is spoken as well in some comarques (counties) adjacent to Catalonia, in particular: the Ribagorzan dialect in Ribagorza (capital Benabarre) and Litera (capital Tamarite de Litera), and a dialect similar to that of Terra Alta in Matarraña (capital Valderrobres) and Bajo Cinca (capital Fraga).

History

From 1035 until 1479 Aragon was also the name of an independent kingdom ruling not only the present administrative region but also from 1137 Catalonia, and later the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Sicily, Naples and Sardinia (see Catalan-Aragonese Empire). The real centre of this kingdom was Barcelona, since it was the Catalan counts that inherited the Aragonese Crown and not the other way around. Present-day historians usually call the kingdom the "Catalan-Aragonese Confederation" or, some of them, simply "Catalonia-Aragon". Barcelona was the center of what was in many ways a Mediterranean Empire, ruling the Mediterranean Sea and setting rules for the entire sea (for instances, in the Llibre del Consolat del Mar (in Catalan).

See list of Kings of Aragon.

The dynastic union of Castile and Aragon in 1479, when Ferdinand II of Aragon wed Isabella I of Castile, led to the formal creation of Spain as a single entity in 1516. See List of Spanish monarchs and Kings of Spain family tree

External links

Government of Aragon (in Spanish)
Basic statistical data on Aragon (in Spanish)

Aragon is also the name of a commune in the Aude département, in France