Huesca (Spanish: Huesca, Aragonese: 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 Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées. Within Spain, Huesca's neighboring provinces are Navarre, Zaragoza and Lleida.

Geography

The modern day province comprises 10 comarcas and 202 municipalities. See also list of municipalities in Huesca.

Name of the Comarca	Capital City
Alto Gállego	Sabiñánigo
Bajo Cinca	Fraga
Cinca Medio	Monzón
Hoya de Huesca	Huesca
Jacetania	Jaca
La Litera	Tamarite de Litera
Monegros	Sariñena
Ribagorza	Graus, formerly Benabarre
Sobrarbe	Ainsa and Boltaña
Somontano de Barbastro	Barbastro

Covering a primarily mountainous area of 15,636 km², the province of Huesca has a total population of 225,271 (in 2008), with almost a quarter of its people living in the capital city of Huesca. The low population density, 14.4/km², has meant that Huesca's lush valleys, rivers, and lofty mountain ranges have remained relatively pristine and unspoiled by progress.

Home to majestic scenery, the tallest mountain in the Pyrenees, the Aneto; eternal glaciers, such as at Monte Perdido; and the National Park of Ordesa and Monte Perdido, rich in flora and protected fauna. Popular with mountaineers, spelunkers, paragliders, and white water rafters it is also a popular snow skiing destination with notable resorts in Candanchú, Formigal, Astún, Panticosa and Cerler.

History

The Romans colonised the province of Huesca, which formed the northern part of Hispania Tarraconensis, and continued to live there well into the 5th century until the arrival of the visigoths. As a mountainous frontier region, it was difficult to dominate. The northern counties had at one time belonged to the Kingdom of Navarre but split off and managed to stem early Moorish invasions in the Middle Ages by forming alliances between themselves and with the Franks, to become Frankish feudal marches. The imperative of sovereignty, or independence, for the northern border counts, gave rise to the legendary Kingdom of Aragon, which was the precursor to the Empire or Crown of Aragon, and ultimately the Kingdom of Spain.

Language

Spanish is the primary language in the province, however the local linguistic varieties in the center and north of the province (often called fabla) belong to the Aragonese language, which now survives mainly in the northernmost comarcas, such as the Aragon river Valley in Jacetania, the Alto Gallego, Sobrarbe, and Ribagorza, where hitherto landlocked and isolated villages have helped the language to thrive into the 21st century.

In the easternmost areas of the province, varieties of the Catalan language are spoken, with a few transitional varieties difficult to classify as Aragonese or Catalan.

References