Editing Comarques of Catalonia (section)

== Overview ==
{{see also | Local government in Spain}}
Although today the comarques are officially defined under a Catalan parliamentary act,<ref>{{cite web|title= The comarcal organisation of Catalonia (Act 6/1987)|url=https://www.boe.es/eli/es-ct/l/1987/04/04/6|publisher=Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado |access-date=11 June 2022 |year=1987|pages=12192–12201 |language=Spanish}}</ref> for centuries they had existed unofficially, with citizens identifying with a particular comarca in the same way that people in other parts of the world might identify with a particular region.

In some cases, comarques consist of rural areas and many small villages centring on an important town, where the people of the region traditionally go to shop or to sell their goods. This is the case of comarques such as the [[Pla de l'Estany]], centred on the town of [[Banyoles]], or the [[Ripollès]], centred on the town of [[Ripoll]]. In other cases, comarques are larger areas with many important population centres that have traditionally been considered part of the same region, as in the case of the [[Empordà]] or [[Vallès]].

The current official division of Catalonia into comarques originates in an order of the [[Autonomous Region of Catalonia (1931–1939)|autonomous Catalan government]] under the [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]] in 1936. It was superseded after the 1939 victory of [[Francisco Franco]]'s forces in the [[Spanish Civil War]], but restored in 1987 by the re-established [[Generalitat de Catalunya|Generalitat of Catalonia]]. Since the definition of comarques is sometimes ambiguous, many new proposals have been made since the comarques were first officially designated as attempts to modify the official distribution with what some regions consider to be a traditional comarca. As a result, some revisions to the official division have been made, such as the additions of [[Moianès]] and [[Lluçanès]] to the map, in 2015 and 2023 respectively.

Comarques exist as a local government area, and have a representative [[comarcal council|county council]]. They are often known as ''counties'' in the English language, but this can be confused with the [[Catalan counties|counties]] that were ruled by [[count|counts]].

Borders of comarques generally do not cross those of the state-level [[Provinces of Spain|provinces]] ([[Province of Barcelona|Barcelona]], [[Province of Girona|Girona]], [[Province of Lleida|Lleida]], [[Province of Tarragona|Tarragona]]), since the provinces are defined by the Spanish government, while comarques are defined by the Catalan government - notably in the case of [[Cerdanya]] which is split into two between the provinces of Lleida and Girona (most other cases involve only one or two municipalities).

[[Val d'Aran|Aran]], which is included here, is officially not a comarca but a "unique territorial entity" with additional powers. Its current status was formalised in February 2015.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.conselharan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Llei-1_2015-Regim-Especiau-dAran2.pdf|title=LLEI 1/2015, del 5 de febrer, del règim especial d'Aran|trans-title= Administration of Aran Act|publisher=[[Generalitat of Catalonia]]|language=ca|date=2015-02-13|access-date=2015-11-19}}</ref>