Valencian Community

For the cycling team, see Comunitat Valenciana (cycling team).

The Valencian Community (Valencian and official: Comunitat Valenciana; Spanish: Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community located in eastern Spain. Its capital is Valencia and it is divided in three provinces, from South to North: Alicante/Alacant, Valencia/València and Castellón/Castelló (names in Spanish/Valencian).

It has 518 km of coastline on the Mediterranean and covers 23,259 km² of land with 4.8 million inhabitants (2005). The Valencian Community also administers the tiny coastal Columbretes islands and the Tabarca islet, together with an exclave called Rincón de Ademuz.

These borders largely reflect those of the historic Kingdom of Valencia, and it's recognized officially as nationality.

The official languages are Spanish and Valencian

Names

Main article: Names of the Valencian Community

The official name of the autonomous community, Comunitat Valenciana, has seen a variety of renditions in English, including "Land of Valencia", "Region of Valencia" or simply "Valencia". The Spanish name, Comunidad Valenciana, was co-official under the first Statute of Autonomy of 1982.

The name of País Valencià (Valencian) or País Valenciano (Spanish), is another name used already since 18th century. It's often translated as "Valencian Country". An example of this use is the Consell pre-autonòmic del País Valencià, the forerunner of the modern Generalitat Valenciana in 1978, and in the preamble to the Statutes of Autonomy.

Finally, the term Kingdom of Valencia (Valencian: Regne de València, Spanish: Reino de Valencia) is only rarely used outside of its historical context (1239–1707).

In all cases, the autonomous Valencian Community should be distinguished

• on the one hand, from the City of Valencia and the Province of Valencia/València; and
• on the other hand, from the linguistic community of speakers of the Valencian language, which corresponds to approximately half of the population of the Valencian Community as well as a small group of speakers in Carxe (Murcia).

Geography

Relief

The inland part of the territory is mountainous, with the highest peaks in the Valencia and Castellón provinces which form part of the Iberic Range. The mountains in the Alicante province are in turn a part of the Subbetic range.

The most emblematic mountain is the Penyagolosa, in the Alcalatén area. It is widely thought to be the highest peak with its 1,813 m., but actually the highest peak is the Calderón (1,839 m.) located in the Rincón de Ademuz which has three more peaks over 1,500 m. The most emblematic mountain in the southern part of the territory is the Aitana (1,558 m.).

The rather thin coastal strip is a very fertile plain mainly free of remarkable mountains except those around the Cabo de la Nao area and the Irta area in the Castellón province. Typical of this coastal area are wetlands and marshlands such as La Albufera in Valencia,El Fondó in Elche, the Marjal in Pego or el Prat in Cabanes, also the former wetlands and now salt evaporation ponds in Santa Pola and Torrevieja. All of them are key RAMSAR sites which make the Valencian Community of high relevance for both migratory and resident seabirds and waterbirds.

There are important coastal dunes in the Saler area near the Albufera and in the Guardamar area, both of them were planted with thousands of trees during the 19th century in order to fix the dunes, thus forming now protected areas of remarkable ecologic value.

Climate

Satellite picture of the Valencian Community; the dry area in the South is easily noticed. Original by NASA

The Valencian Community has a generally mild climate, heavily influenced by the neighbouring Mediterranean sea. Still, there are important differences between areas:

• Proper Mediterranean climate. It roughly goes along the coastal plain from the northernmost border through the Benidorm area (cities included here are, amongst others, Castelló de la Plana, Gandia and València). It reaches in various grades the lower inland areas. In this area, winters are cool, summers long, very dry and hot and rains occur mostly during spring and autumn, usually around 600mm. with a remarkably wetter micro climate in the Marina Alta and La Safor comarques right in the north side of Cabo la Nao, which accumulate an average of up to 1000mm. due to the Orographic lift phenomenon.

• Mediterranean to Continental climate transition zone. These are the innermost lands and some of those closer to the sea but at a higher elevation (cities included here are, amongst others, Alcoi, Morella, Requena, Villena). Here winters are cool to cold (a few days of snow are not unusual), summers mild to hot and rains more evenly distributed through the year.

• Mediterranean to Semiarid climate. It roughly goes along the coastal plain from Vila Joiosa through the southernmost border (cities included here are, amongst others, Alicante, Elx, Orihuela and Torrevieja). Summers are very long, hot to very hot and very dry, winters are cool to mild and its most prominent feature is very scarce precipitation, typically below 300mm. per year and most likely to happen during spring and autumn. The reasons for this lack of precipitation is mostly the marked Rain shadow effect caused by hills to the west of the Alicante province (and, to a lesser degree, those in the northern part of the province which, in turn, enhance the inverse Orographic lift effect around Cabo de la Nao).

Hydrography

There are only two major rivers: the Segura in the Alicante province (whose source is in Andalusia) and the Júcar in the Valencia province (whose source is in Castilla-La Mancha) both are subjected to very intense human regulation for cities, industries and -specially- agricultural consumption. The river Turia is the third largest and also has its source in Castilla La Mancha. Autochtonous rivers such as the Vinalopó are usually short, of little flow (due to agricultural usage, climatic reasons or both) and often completely dry during the summer.

History

Biar Castle

The origins of present day Valencia date back to the former Kingdom of Valencia, which came into existence in the 13th century. James I of Aragon led Christian conquest and colonization of the existing Islamic taifas with Aragonese and Catalan people in 1208 and founded the Kingdom of Valencia as a third independent country within the Crown of Aragon in 1238.

In 1707, in the context the War of the Spanish Succession, and by means of the Nueva Planta decrees, king Philip V of Spain subordinated the Kingdom of Valencia, and the rest of the countries which belonged to the Crown of Aragon which had retained their independence, to the structure of the Kingdom of Castile and its laws and customs. As a result of this, the institutions and laws created by the Furs of Valencia were abolished and the usage of the Valencian language in official instances and education was forbidden. Consequently, with the House of Bourbon a new Kingdom of Spain was formed implementing a more centralized government than the former Habsburg Spain.

The first attempt to gain self-government for Valencia in modern-day Spain was during the 2nd Spanish Republic, in 1936 year, but the Civil War broke out and the autonomist project was suspended. In 1977, after Franco's disctatorship, Valencia started to be partially autonomous with the creation of the Consell Pre-autonòmic del País Valencià (Pre-autonomous Council of the Valencian Country), and in 1982 the self-government was finally extended into a Statute of Autonomy creating several self-government institutions under the Generalitat Valenciana.

The Valencian Statutes of Autonomy make clear that the Valencian Community is intended to be the modern conception of self-governemnt of the Valencian Country from the first autonomist movements (autogovern) during Second Spanish Republic, but also joining it to the traditional conception of Valencian identity, as being successor to the historical Kingdom of Valencia (furs) . In fact, after a bipartisan reform of the Valencian statute of autonomy in 2006, it recovers the foral civil law, because of traditional conception, and, in the other side, it also recognizes Valencia as a nationality, because of modern conception.

Demographics

The Valencian population traditionally concentrated in localities with fertile cultivation and growing lowlands by the most important rivers (Júcar, Turia, Segura, Vinalopó), also in harbor cities important to the agricultural trade.

The most important population centers used to be, during the Roman times, Sagunt or Dénia; later on in history, Valencia, Alicante, Xàtiva, Orihuela, Elx, Gandia, or Vila-real and, more recently, Alzira and Castellón de la Plana.

The population density which is higher in the central and southern regions and minor in the northern and inner ones, is derived from the traditional distribution of people which originated in the orographic characteristics of the Valencian territory and the possibility to obtain irrigated land agriculture. Demographics were also affected by (being perhaps the exception to the mentioned distribution) the great industrial activity and the commerce of agriculturally derived products during the XXth century of noncoastal cities like Alcoi, Elda, Ontinyent, Petrer, Villena, and Vall d'Uixó.

In the last years, concentration in the great capitals and its metropolitan areas has augmented considerably (e.g. Torrent, Mislata, Paterna, Burjassot, Sant Vicent del Raspeig, etc.) especially in all the coastal cities and towns. Thus, traditionally small populations such as Benidorm or Torrevieja have undergone a considerable population increase (still more remarkable during summertime) due to the seasonal migration of tourists.

Therefore, Valencia's population is nowadays clearly urban and coastal, also influenced by seasonal tourism.

Nuclei with more than 50,000 habs. Valencian Community 4,692,449 hab. Town Valencia Alicante Elx Castellón Torrevieja Orihuela Torrent Gandia Benidorm Sagunt Alcoi Elda Paterna Population 796,549 319,380 215,137 167,455 84,348 75,009 72,660 71,429 67,492 61,823 60,931 55,571 54,560

Source: Institut Valencià d'Estadística, 2005.

Economics

The Valencian Community conforms an elongated territory, with a rather steep and irregular orography that has made communications and the exploitation of the soil historically difficult, despite the soil being particularly fertile in the coastal plain. This coastal axis has facilitated connections with Europe, either by sea through the Mediterranean, or by land through Catalonia.

The natural resources of the Valencian territory are small with regard to minerals other than the important marble quarrying industry in the Alicante province.

As for hydrological resources (see Geography above) there is a demand of water superior to the supply, making this imbalance especially serious in the Alicante province. In years when drought is particularly severe, the problem is mitigated if necessary, with occasional nocturnal restrictions during Summer and water-bearing subterraneans exploitation. This remains a source of harsh controversy over hydrological resources with neighbouring regions such as Castile-La Mancha and Catalonia.

Benidorm's skyline represents the paradigm of mass seasonal tourism in Spain

Due to the secondary and tertiary sectors boom by the times of the Spanish miracle during the 1960s, the agricultural sector has seen its relative importance reduced over time (not so the absolute figures), but it remains to be credited -under the form of citrus cultivation for the export market- for the first economic boom by the late 19th century after centuries of slow development, if not decay. Castellón and Valencia provinces still have thousands of hectares of citrus producing groves and it continues to be a major source of income on the countryside. In the Alicante province, citrus is also present but agriculture is more diversified with a higher presence of vegetables, especially in the Vega Baja del Segura area.

The high insulation rate and overall stable weather which during the Summer may pose a threat to water supplies either for agricultural or human consumption, conversely allow tourism to be the main economic industry with a very high density of residential housing along the coast occupied by locals, people from inland Spain and from other EU countries (mostly from Britain, Germany, Belgium and Norway) which seasonally boost population (and hydrological demands) in the summertime.

In 2002, the Valencian Community generated 10'5% of the Spanish GDP. In human resources, the rate of unemployment was located around 10'5%, being greater among women, and the rate of activity reached 56'8% in 2002. The typical Valencian business is a small and medium company, mainly family-owned and operated, although there are some multinationals.

In addition to tourism, the Valencian economy is characterized by a marked exporting dimension, being the second exporting Spanish autonomous community, constituting 12% of the national total. The major exports are agricultural products, ceramic tiles, marble products and cars (Ford has an assembly line in Almussafes) among others, which make the port of Valencia the busiest in Spain.

In 2004, Valencia's GDP was 93.9% of the European Union average even though this figure may be affected positively by the important presence of foreign residents either from other regions of Europe or economic immigrants which are not properly represented in the official statistics. Growth rates after 2004 have been significant in overall Spain and additional progress from present figures is going on as of 2007.

Languages

Main article: Valencian language

Knowledge of Valencian in the Valencian Community
Can understand	76%
Can speak	53%
Can read	47%
Can write	25%
Source: Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (2004). Enquesta sobre la situació del valencià.

Valencian is the llengua pròpia ("own language") of the Valencian Community, where it is co-official with Spanish. It is more spoken in the coastal areas than inland, where Spanish tends to predominate. This is particularly true of certain areas which were incorporated into the provinces of Alicante and Valencia at their creation in 1833 and which did not form form part of the historical Kingdom of Valencia. The 1984 Law on the Use and Teaching of the Valencian Language defines certain municipalities as "predominantly Spanish-speaking", and allows them some derogations as to the official use of Valencian, although the right to use and to receive education in Valencian is guaranteed by the Statute of Autonomy (Art. 6.2).

Even in areas which formed part of the old Kingdom of Valencia, the knowledge and use of Valencian has been diluted by immigration from other parts of Spain and by the lasting effects of the suppression of regional languages since the XVIII century (Nueva Planta decrees), and, in recent times, under the Franco dictatorship (1936–75). The knowledge of Valencian in those areas defined as "predominantly Valencian-speaking" by the Generalitat Valenciana (83% can understand, 58% can speak) is scarcely any higher than in the Valencian Community as a whole (see table). Of those who can speak Valencian, less than two-thirds do so "habitually", e.g. within the family. Dispite the efforts of the Generalitat, there has been little progression in the knowledge of Valencian (as a proportion of the total population) in recent years.

Standard Valencian differs only slightly from standard Catalan,. The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua considers them to be part of the same "linguistic system", as does the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. However, within the Valencian Community, conservative forces (specially blaverists) oppose to the suggestion that the Valencian and Catalan are "the same language", seen notably on the occasion of the referendum in 2004 to approve the proposed Constitution of the European Union where the Spanish government at first distributed identical translations of the Constitutional Treaty in Catalonia and the Valencian Community. Other Spanish government documents contain seperate translations into Catalan and Valencian, particularly where there are differences in orthography between the two standards.

Valencian Symbols

Valencian Coat of Arms over the entrance of the Torres dels Serrans.

Top of the Towers of Serrans (city of Valencia).

The flag of the Valencian Community is the traditional Valencian crowned Senyera, composed of four red bars on a yellow background, crowned with a blue strip next to the spear. The official Anthem is the Hymn of the Regional Exhibition of 1909, in whose composition the old hymn of the City of Valencia of the XVI century is included. The emblem of the Valencian Generalitat includes the seal of King Peter IV of Aragon, representative of the historical Kingdom of Valencia, whose shield is inclined towards the right, or, four bars Gules.

The official flag, also known as Senyera Coronada or crowned senyera is the same as Valencia's City flag, which, in turn, is a historical derivation of the Senyera, the heraldic symbol of the Crown of Aragon, also used today with few variations in all the former Kingdoms and Counties which were a part of this crown. There are also a number of Valencian private and civil entities such as trade unions, cultural associations, or political parties which simply use the Senyera as Valencian flag.

Other symbols are used at different levels by the Valencian society, like the heraldic animals of rat-penat (a bat) and drac alat (a winged dragon which was the emblem of James I), or the music of the Muixeranga, among others.

Gastronomy

Valencian Paella

The Valencian gastronomy is of great variety, although their more international dishes are rice based, like the worldwide known Valencian paella. The rice is a basic ingredient in many of the typical dishes, like the "arrós (rice) a banda", the "arrós a la pedrera", "arrós negre", "arrós amb costra", "arrós caldòs", among many.

The Valencian Mediterranean climate favors the cultivation of citrus fruits and vegetables, with the cultivation of the orange being perhaps of highest importance as one of the typical fruits of Valencian agriculture.

Drinks

The horchata, whose traditional nucleus of elaboration is Alboraia, is a typical drink, accompanied with "fartons". Also traditional is the production of coffee liquor (typical of Alcoi), and mistela (in Marina Baixa and la Hoya de Buñol).

File:Turrón.jpg

Turron from Alicante

Desserts

The great majority of desserts have their origin in Arabic times and play and important part in the local festive activities. Some, nowadays are internationally famous. Xixona is the place of traditional manufacture of turrón (a soft nougat) dessert consumed during Christmas in Spain and the rest of the Hispanic world. In Xàtiva, the "Arnadí", a dessert elaborated with pumpkin is made. In Orihuela and its region the "almojábenas", and in Alcoi the "peladillas" (sugared almonds) are produced.

Sports

Valencian pilota match

The autoctonous Valencian sport is the Valencian pilota, which features a professionalValencian Pilota Squad for international matches with related ball games all around the world. This sport has many variants, that may be played at the streets or at special courtfields like the trinquet.It may also be played by teams or on individual challenges. An amazing trait of this sport is that spectators may sit very close or even in the middle of the court. Even while the match is ongoing bookmakers take bets for reds or blues, since these are the colours players must wear, red being the colour of the strongest team or player. The Valencian pilota can be traced to the XV century, but it was abandoned during modern times, this decadence is being fought back with TV broadcasts, new built colleges have courtfields and a new professional players firm, ValNet.

Another relevant game is the pigeon sport, with an autoctonous dove race being trained, the gavatxut valencià.

Petanca and its variant Calitx are traditional sports as well, especially in towns or among older people.

Motorcycle races are very popular, as the Circuit de Valencia race track and its hosted Valencian Community Grand Prix prove.

Football is the most known sport. There are many teams in every town or village, but only three of them are playing now in La Liga, the Spanish Premiership: Levante UD, Valencia CF and Villarreal CF. There are many big teams elsewhere, such as CD Alcoyano, CD Castellón, Elche CF or Hércules CF.

Professional Basketball is represented by two teams, the CB Lucentum Alicante and the Valencia BC in the top league, the ACB.

Regarding female professional sports, Valencian Handball rules the Spanish Honor division league with more than half of the teams, such as Astroc Sagunt, Orsan Elda Prestigio and Cementos La Union Ribaroja.

Provinces

Traditionally the land is divided into comarques, and in 1883 was, along with the rest of Spain, divided into provinces. There are 32 comarques, and three provinces: Castellón/Castelló, Valencia/València, and Alicante/Alacant.

• Valencia (Valencian València), population 796,549, capital of the province of the same name, on the river Turia. Famous festival of the Fallas on March 19.
• Alicante (Valencian Alacant), population 319,380, capital of the province of the same name, in the Mediterranean coast. Famous for its hard nougat or turrón duro (Valencian torró dur) and Postiguet, Albufereta and San Joan Beaches. The famous festival of the Bonfires of Saint John is in June. Its city hall and the Santa Barbara Castle are historic monuments.
• Elx (Spanish Elche), population 215,137, famous for the wood of the palm tree called Palmeral, and for the Misteri d'Elx, two-day festival of singing and street drama that acts out the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, declared by UNESCO as part of all humankind's oral heritage.
• Castellón de la Plana (Valencian Castelló de la Plana), population 167,455, capital of the province of Castellón.
• Torrevieja (Valencian Torrevella), population 84,348, in the south, important tourist center with many hotels, apartments and tourist accommodations; includes La Mata Beach.
• Gandia, population 77,943, is another important tourist center, situated on the Costa del Azahar.
• Orihuela (Valencian Oriola), population 75,009, on the Segura River, historic city with palaces, churches and the Cathedral, on the "Vega Baja" (Valencian Baix Segura), a highly productive area for farm products such as oranges, lemons and the like.
• Benidorm, population 67,492, a major holiday resort, dubbed Beniyork because of its many skyscrapers, including Spain's tallest, the 52-story Gran Hotel Bali.
• Elda, population 55,571, important production center for shoes and wine in the Vinalopo area.
• Xixona (Spanish Jijona), population 7,494, near Alicante, famous for its soft nougat or torró de Xixona (Spanish turrón de Jijona).
• Villena, population 34.000, important production of shoes and wine, with many historical and monumental visits. Also, fiestas of "Moros y Cristianos", one of the most important in the Community
• Vila-real (Spanish Villarreal), population 46,696, important producer of ceramics and brick.
• Buñol (Valencian Bunyol), population 9,404, famous for the tomatina, a town-wide tomato fight held the last Wednesday of August.
• Ibi, population 23,059, a toy production center.

Major rivers:

• Turia River (Valencian Túria)
• Júcar River (Valencian Xúquer)
• Segura River

Other articles

• Nationalities in Spain
• Seaports in the Valencian Community

External links

• http://www.avl.gva.es/ Language Valencian Academy
• http://www.comunitatvalenciana.com Official tourism webpage.
• Valencia on Wikitravel
• Travelturisme. Guide for professional tourism in the Region of Valencia with tourism news
• subway metropolitan area
• Valencia information in English
• Valencia search engine
• Datos y cifras de los municipios de la provincia de Alicante. Unidad de Documentación de la Diputación de Alicante Template:Es
• Web de la Diputación Provincial de Alicante Template:Es