Benabarre
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Benabarre is the historical and cultural capital of the comarca. It is part of the geo-linguistic area of La Franja, where Ribagorçan dialect of Catalan is spoken. In ancient texts it appears as Benabarri.
It is located in the Pre-Pyrenees, 90 km from Huesca and 65 km from Lleida, at an altitud of 792 m, in a small syncline between Ésera and Cajigar rivers. Most of the territory, however, belongs to the Noguera Ribagorçana basin. To the north we find the Castillo de Laguarres mountain range, and to the south we find the Montsec Range. Through its municipal area runs the N-230 road, that connects Lleida and the Val d'Aran.
It is a very old town, probably the Roman "Bargidum" or "Bargusia", and it is said that it was given to the Arabs taking the name of their first lord Aben Avarre. It was conquered from Islam around the year 1062 (although there is no document proving the exact date). What leaves no doubt is that it was conquered by Ramiro I of Aragon for the Kingdom of Aragon within the same military campaign in which he conquered, immediately north of the town, the places of Luzás, Viacamp y Litera, Tolva, Laguarres and Lascuarre, and to the south of the town, but north of Purroy and Caserras, the lands of Falces, Falcibus, from one of whose houses and its alloys, the king granted a franchise to Agila de Falces and brothers on February 1, 1067 (as documented on that date).
Traditionally, Benabarre was the capital of the historic County of Ribagorza, which was more expansive in territory than today, and included the comarca of Alta Ribagorça, now in the province of Lleida, Catalonia. It was during the Spanish War of Independence, from 1808–1814, that the French Napoleonic troops, in retaliation against the inhabitants of Benabarre, decided to make Graus the capital of the comarca. Ever since, Benabarre ceased to be the administrative capital, but it is still the most important cultural and historical center of the region. During the First Carlist War (1833-1840) it was one of the towns that suffered the most from those in the province of Huesca.
Map - Benabarre
Map
Country - Spain
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Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| GL | Galician language |
| OC | Occitan language |
| ES | Spanish language |
