Catalonia

Catalonia, whose capital is the city of Barcelona, has been my home for the past 13 years. It is my country: a nation with more than one thousand years of history, and yet without a state of its own. It is currently an autonomous community of Spain, but many of its inhabitants are longing for independence.

These are the nation's flag and coat of arms:

Catalonia, whose area is 32,114 square kilometers (12,399 square miles), occupies the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, which in turn is located in southwestern Europe. While it is geographically bathed by the Mediterranean Sea and bound to the north by the Pyrenees, it limits politically with France, Andorra and the lands of Aragon and Valencia - these last two currently belong to Spain too.

According to Spanish laws, Catalonia is divided into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona; nonetheless, the Catalan laws recognize another type of administrative division, which is historical to the territory: the vegueria. Nowadays, there are eight vegueries:

• Àmbit metropolità de Barcelona
• Alt Pirineu (excluding Val d'Aran, which is a historical and autonomous Occitan county)
• Camp de Tarragona
• Comarques Centrals
• Comarques Gironines
• Penedès
• Ponent
• Terres de l'Ebre

Catalonia's type of government is a devolved one as it is stated on Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy. The body of government is the Generalitat de Catalunya, whose inception dates from 1283. It was abolished in 1714 and restored again in 1977. It had also been active between the years 1931 and 1939.

As of 2014, the country's total population was 7,504,000 inhabitants. These inhabitants are the Catalans and most of them are bilingual in Catalan (the country's own and main language, evolved from Vulgar Latin by the 9th century) and Spanish. In Val d'Aran, another language is spoken: Occitan (it is also named Aranese there), which shares a common origin with Catalan.

Catalonia's national anthem is called "Els Segadors" ("The Reapers").

If you want to read news about Catalonia, you can do it for free here.

Read this post in Catalan.