Province of Castellón
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Castellón (Template:IPA); co-officially in Template:Langx Template:IPA) is a province in the northern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Valencia to the south, Teruel to the west, Tarragona to the north, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The western side of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area.
Geography
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Castellón's capital is Castellón de la Plana. The province had a population of 579,962 at the start of 2019,<ref>Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Madrid, 2019.</ref> 30% of whom were residing in the capital, 60% in its metropolitan area, and 85% along the coastline. As of the 2011 Census, the population had grown to 594,423 people, but has since declined.<ref>Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Madrid, 2019.</ref> The province, and in particular its idle large airport, has become a symbol of the wasteful spending prior to the 2008-14 Spanish financial crisis.
It is a bilingual territory whose inhabitants speak both Spanish and the local co-official language Valencian.
Other major cities of the province include Vila-real, Borriana, La Vall d'Uixó and Vinaròs. There are 135 municipalities in Castellón; see List of municipalities in Castellón.
Castellón is the home of Penyagolosa, the highest mountain of the province and the second highest one in the Valencian Community. It is widely considered to be one of the most emblematic Valencian mountains.
The Greenwich Meridian (the Prime Meridian) passes through the province; there are localities with commemorative monuments such as La Pobla Tornesa, Castellón or Almassora (Paseo Marítimo), and in Castellon it intersects the 40th parallel, and the exact point can be visited at the Meridian Park.<ref name="Castelló Turismo2020">Template:Cite web</ref>
Population development
[edit]The historical population is given in the following chart: <timeline> Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:600 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo
PlotData=
color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1877 from:0 till:289 text:288,765 bar:1887 from:0 till:293 text:292,822 bar:1900 from:0 till:318 text:318,260 bar:1910 from:0 till:334 text:334,181 bar:1920 from:0 till:325 text:325,211 bar:1930 from:0 till:318 text:317,899 bar:1940 from:0 till:320 text:320,443 bar:1950 from:0 till:330 text:330,257 bar:1960 from:0 till:343 text:342,649 bar:1970 from:0 till:387 text:386,516 bar:1980 from:0 till:432 text:431,893 bar:1990 from:0 till:447 text:446,744 bar:2000 from:0 till:485 text:484,566 bar:2010 from:0 till:594 text:594,423 bar:2020 from:0 till:586 text:585,590
TextData=
pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"
</timeline>
Economy
[edit]Traditionally, the economy of Castellón has been focused on the production of citrus and vegetables (Nules and Benicarló). Since the 17th century, Castellón has developed an important ceramic and ceramic tile industry (Onda, L'Alcora, Nules, Castellón de la Plana and Vila-real) and nowadays most of the Spanish tile producers are concentrated in the province. Also, furniture (Benicarló and Vinaròs) and chemical industries (Benicarló and Castellón) are present. There is a large oil refinery in Castellón de la Plana.
Traditional industries such as shoe and footwear (La Vall d'Uixó), fishing (Castellón, Vinaròs) and textiles (Vilafranca and Morella), have given way to a service-based economy due to the increasing importance of tourism in the economy of the province.
Tourism
[edit]The Province of Castellón has varied landscapes and heritage that supports a growing tourist industry. The largest seaside and beach resorts include Benicàssim, Orpesa, Vinaròs, Borriana, Peníscola, Benicarló, etc. There are opportunities for rural tourism in the interior, as well as monumental towns like Morella, Vilafamés, Sant Mateu, Segorbe, mineral springs at Montanejos, Benassal, Catí, etc.
More than 50% of the hotel beds are concentrated in Peniscola, which is the third most popular tourist destination in the Valencian Community after Benidorm and Valencia.
Comarques
[edit]The province is historically subdivided into the following comarques: