Alta Ribagorça

Alta Ribagorça

Country: Spain
Autonomous community: Catalonia
Province: Lleida
Capital: Pont de Suert
Municipalities:
El Pont de Suert, La Vall de Boí, Vilaller
Government: President of the Comarcal Council Joan Perelada i Ramon (PSC)
Area: Total 426.8 km2 (164.8 sq mi)
Population:Total 4,431
Density: 10.4/km2 (26.9/sq mi)
Demonym: Ribagorça
Time zone: CET (UTC+1)
Summer: (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Largest municipality: Pont de Suert
Alta Ribagorça is one of the comarques of Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Pont de Suert.
Municipalities of Alta Ribagorça:
El Pont de Suert - population: 2,725
Vall de Boí - population: 1,062
Vilaller - population: 644

The Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.(Nov. 30, 2000).

In the North-East of the area there is the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park, which attracts an important number of visitors.
The local Ribagorçan dialect is a variant of Catalan, which has some transitional traits to Aragonese.

Location:
Farthest east point: 0° 58' 27,80" East longitude.
Farthest west point: 0° 41' 30,24" East longitude.
Farthest north point: 42° 37' 58,88" North latitude.
Farthest south point: 42° 18' 0,07" North latitude.
Highest point: Comaloformo (3030 m) in the Bessiberri Range.

In the high mountains, on the slopes of the Pyrenees, Alta Ribagorça stretches from the Besiberri and Montardo d'Aran massifs to the Sant Gervàs foothills. On the left bank of the Noguera Ribagorçana (which rises in the nearby Val d'Aran), it includes part of the Barravés valley (near the headwaters of the Noguera) and the Boí valley, on the left side. Towering peaks (Comaloforno), glacial corries with lakes (Negre, Cavallers, Llong, Llebreta, etc.), sparsely populated, enclosed valleys. It also includes the western sector of the Aigüestortes National Park and Sant Maurici Lake, which it shares with Pallars Sobirà. Alta Ribagorça is part of the mediaeval county of Ribagorça, on the border between Aragon and Catalonia, which was finally separated in the provincial division of 1833 (all Baixa Ribagorça and part of Alta Ribagorça remained in Aragon). Crop and dairy farming and exploitation of the woodlands are now complemented by the exploitation of water resources (electric power stations). In recent decades tourists have begun to arrive, drawn by the beauty of the landscape, the walking, climbing and skiing, the spa waters and, most of all, the Romanesque churches of the Boí valley, which are internationally renowned, that the year 2000, the UNESCO has declared world heritage.