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16-559: It comprises two lanes, separated by a 2-meter-wide (6.6 ft) safety zone in the middle. The southern entrance, at an altitude of 1,175 m (3,855 ft), is located in the settlement of Gréixer, part of the municipality of Guardiola de Berguedà , in the watershed of the Llobregat river . The northern entrance is in Cerdanya, in the municipality of Urús , part of the Segre watershed, and

32-534: A number of municipalities , roughly equivalent to a county in the United States. Currently, Catalonia is divided into 42 comarques and Aran , considered a "unique territorial entity" and not a comarca. Each comarca has a representative county council (Catalan: consell comarcal ), except for Barcelonès , which abolished it in 2019, and Aran, which instead has the Conselh Generau d'Aran . Comarques form

48-480: A separate municipality. Each municipality is run by a council elected by the residents at periodic nationwide local elections . The council consists of a number of members depending on population, who elect the mayor ( Spanish : alcalde , Catalan : batlle ). The town hall ( Catalan : ajuntament ) is located in the main settlement, and deals with provision of local services and administrative matters such as registration of residents. The "main settlement"

64-545: A separate settlement. The Catalan government encourages mergers of very small municipalities; its "Report on the revision of Catalonia's territorial organisation model" (the " Roca Report  [ ca ] "), published in 2000 but not yet implemented, recommends many such mergers. Larger municipalities may sometimes grant the status of decentralised municipal entity ( Catalan : EMD , Spanish : EATIM ) to one or more of its settlements, for more effective provision of services or to substitute for its previous status as

80-443: Is (as of 2018) divided into 947 municipalities . Each municipality typically represents one significant urban settlement, of any size from village to city, with its surrounding land. This is not always the case, though. Many municipalities have merged as a result of rural depopulation or simply for greater efficiency. Some large urban areas, for example Barcelona , consist of more than one municipality, each of which previously held

96-479: Is at a height of 1,236 m (4,055 ft). The Serra de Moixeró is often confused with the nearby Serra del Cadí range, hence the tunnel's naming after the latter. Both ranges are within the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park , which also includes nearby Pedraforca . In 1973, the company Promociones Pirinaicas, S.A. , was granted a license by the government to build, maintain, and manage a tunnel through

112-683: Is included here, is officially not a comarca but a "unique territorial entity" with additional powers. Its current status was formalised in February 2015. Revisions to the comarques took place in 1988 (creation of Pla d'Estany, Pla d'Urgell, and Alta Ribagorça), 1990 (various adjustments), and May 2015 (creation of Moianès). The Catalan government 's "Report on the revision of Catalonia's territorial organisation model" (the Roca Report  [ ca ] ), published in 2000, recommends many more changes to comarques, which have not yet been adopted except for

128-416: Is not always the biggest settlement, as new urban developments such as tourist resorts can become very big very quickly without achieving any political recognition. Boundaries between municipalities have their origins in ancient landholdings and transfers, and may often appear quite arbitrary and illogical, with exclaves common. Catalonia's municipalities are (as of 1987 ) grouped into 42 comarques (by

144-528: The autonomous Catalan government under the 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 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

160-565: The counties that were ruled by counts . Borders of comarques generally do not cross those of the state-level provinces ( Barcelona , Girona , Lleida , 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). Aran , which

176-480: The 2015 creation of Moianès. The other proposed new comarques are: Vall de Camprodon  [ ca ] (capital at Camprodon ), Selva Marítima  [ ca ] (capital at Blanes ), Alta Segarra  [ ca ] (capital at Calaf ), Segre Mitjà  [ ca ] (capital at Ponts ), and Baix Llobregat Nord  [ ca ] (capital at Martorell ). In a non-binding referendum in July 2015,

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192-757: The Catalan government) and four provinces (by the Spanish government). Occasional revisions of the boundaries of comarcas have resulted in municipalities moving from one comarca to another; see the list at Comarques of Catalonia . The official names in Catalan are the only legal ones (except in the Val d'Aran ). Older texts may use Spanish forms or spellings. Comarques of Catalonia The comarques of Catalonia (singular comarca , Eastern Catalan: [kuˈmarkə] , Western Catalan: [koˈmaɾka] ), often referred to in English as counties , are an administrative division of Catalonia . Each comarca comprises

208-660: The Serra del Cadí. Work on the project began in 1978 , with the completed tunnel and its access roads inaugurated on 29 October, 1984 . This work completed a segment of the C-1411 highway, intended to run from Manresa to Bellver de Cerdanya . Since then, this segment has been added to the C-16 highway, " Eix del Llobregat ", which runs from Barcelona to Puigcerdà , and thence to Orleans as part of European route E9 . Download coordinates as: Municipalities of Catalonia Catalonia

224-428: 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 county council . They are often known as counties in the English language, but this can be confused with

240-642: 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

256-573: The second-level administrative division within Catalonia, being a subdivision of vegueries (or provinces at state level). Although today the comarques are officially defined under a Catalan parliamentary act, 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

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