Province of Teruel

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox settlement

Teruel (Catalan: Terol Template:IPA) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel.

It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Zaragoza. The area of the province is 14,809 km². Its population is 134,572 (2018), of whom about a quarter live in the capital, and its population density is 9.36/km². It contains 236 municipalities, of which more than half are villages of under 200 people. Teruel is the second-least populated province of Spain, and also the second-lowest in population density, in both counts after the province of Soria.

The main language throughout the province is Spanish (with official status), although Catalan is spoken in a northeastern area bordering Catalonia.

Geography

This province is located in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. The main ranges in the province of Teruel are Sierra de la Virgen, Sierra de Santa Cruz, Sierra de Cucalón, Sierra de San Just, Sierra Carrascosa, Sierra Menera, Sierra Palomera, Sierra de Javalambre, Sierra de Gúdar, Sierra de Albarracín and the Montes Universales, among others.

Depopulation and neglect

Most of the Teruel Province has undergone massive depopulation since the middle of the 20th century. This situation is shared with other areas in Spain, particularly with those near the Iberian mountain range (much of the provinces of Soria, Guadalajara and Cuenca) and with other areas in Aragón.

The exodus from the rural mountain areas in Teruel rose after General Franco's Plan de Estabilización in 1959. The population declined steeply as people migrated towards the industrial areas and the large cities in Spain, leaving behind their small villages where living conditions were often harsh, with cold winters and very basic facilities.

As a consequence there are many ghost towns in different parts of the province.<ref>Pueblos deshabitados – Collado de la Grulla (Teruel)</ref>

A great number of surviving towns in Teruel province have only a residual population, reviving somewhat during the summer when a few city-dwellers spend their holidays there. Other causes of the strong emigration have been the low productivity of traditional agricultural practices, like sheep and goat farming, the closing of mines, like the large Sierra Menera mine near Ojos Negros,<ref>La Compañía Minera de Sierra Menera. Breve historia Template:Webarchive</ref> as well as the lifestyle changes that swept over rural Spain during the second half of the 20th century.<ref>Despoblación en Aragon Template:Webarchive</ref>

The "Teruel Exists" (Template:Langx) movement began at the turn of the 21st century. It is a platform of provincial authorities, institutions and sympathizers seeking to reverse the long-standing neglect of this province.<ref>Teruel existe</ref>

Population development

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:650 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:270 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:249 text:248,765
bar:1887 from:0 till:247 text:246,817
bar:1900 from:0 till:252 text:251,994
bar:1910 from:0 till:266 text:265,908
bar:1920 from:0 till:264 text:264,062
bar:1930 from:0 till:264 text:263,700
bar:1940 from:0 till:246 text:245,960
bar:1950 from:0 till:243 text:243,269
bar:1960 from:0 till:224 text:223,758
bar:1970 from:0 till:174 text:173,861
bar:1980 from:0 till:153 text:153,457
bar:1990 from:0 till:144 text:143,680
bar:2000 from:0 till:136 text:135,858
bar:2010 from:0 till:143 text:143,162
bar:2020 from:0 till:134 text:134,176

TextData=

pos:(35,20) fontsize:M
text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"

</timeline>

Comarcas

The following Comarcas of Aragon are located in Teruel Province:

Notable people

Luis Buñuel, film director from Calanda
Gaspar Sanz, music composer from Calanda
Antón García Abril, music composer
Pablo Serrano, sculptor from Crivillén
Luis Milla, retired footballer who played for CD Teruel, FC Barcelona and R. Madrid
David Civera, light music singer
Federico Jiménez Losantos, author, journalist and radio host
Manuel Pizarro Moreno, businessman, politician and jurist