Aragon

Aragón is a region of north-eastern Spain comprising the provinces of Zaragoza, Huesca, and Teruel and covering 47,650 sq. km. with a population of 1.2 million. From 1035 until 1479 Aragón 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 list of Kings of Aragon.

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, and Navarre. Its capital is Zaragoza.

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 language is spoken as well in some comarques 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).

The dynastic union of Castile and Aragón 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

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See also:

• Aragón River
• Catherine of Aragon, 1st queen of Henry VIII of England

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