 As is our tradition let's head into the weekend with a #geoweirdness thread! With less than three weeks to go until the next Geomob Barcelona (on 29 May ๐๏ธ) it's fitting that we take a look at the geographic oddities of Catalonia. #geomobBCN details and sign-up here: https://thegeomob.com/post/may-29th-2024-geomobbcn-details Ok, ready for some #geoweirdness facts about Catalonia? 1/ 17 comments
3/ The treaty however created some border complexities. Weโre passionate about exclaves here at OpenCage, and Catalonia has one! The treaty gave all villages north of the Pyrenees to France ๐ซ๐ท But this meant the Catalan "town" of Llรญva was not part of the transfer. 4/ In the interests of brevity and neutrality, we will not explore the entire history of Catalonia or the independence movement in depth. Here is a summary which brings you up to speed, taking into account the critical Independence vote of 2017. It's complicated and there are many opinions (many very strongly held) 5/ Nevertheless, in the interest of #geoweirdness we do need to mention Tabarnia. This fictional region of Catalonia imagines an area that opposes independence. It is a neologism whose name combines two Catalan provinces, Tarragona and Barcelona. Opponents of independence often use it to highlight the political challenges of the independence movement. 7/ Val d'Aran is also interesting because it is the only region of Catalonia in which the water flows to the Atlantic ๐ via Toulouse and Bordeaux ๐ซ๐ท https://curiositatcat.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/el-riu-catala-que-desemboca-a-latlantic/ 8/ While Aranese is a tiny linguistic island, Catalan is much more widely spoken. It is the official language of Andorra ๐ฆ๐ฉ, has official status in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia, and in the city of Alghero on Sardinia, Italy ๐ฎ๐น https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language There is an active campaign to have Catalan recognized as the 25th official language of the EU 9/ Best way to practice your geospatial Catalan? Follow @Raf who posts daily about interesting geospatial stuff in Catalan. Raf is of course a regular Barcelona geomobster You should also follow the @osmcatala to keep tabs on the OpenStreetMap community in Catalonia 10/ The capital of Catalonia is Barcelona, it is the second largest city in Spain. Because of its grid system maps of Barcelona typically do NOT have north at the top! Instead maps are aligned so that the city's unique grid system is shown up-down/right-left. Wait! Forgot to post about one of the most delightful #geoweirdness things in Catalonia. In the Catalan town of Badia del Vallรจs not far from Barcelona the street layout is actually a map of Iberia @opencage @thetimtraveller also has a quite nice video about Llรญvia: https://youtu.be/sT5GpFnRMEQ @opencage the road between LLivia and main spain territory (D68 on the map) has a special international statute, of little use today since France and Spain are both member of the Schengen area Not sure to understnd, is that because Llรญva had the status of "town", not "village"? What defined that status? @cyclotopie yes, correct. good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT5GpFnRMEQ |
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2/ Catalonia is today the name given to an autonomous region of Spain ๐ช๐ธ
Historically, Catalonia's borders extended further. The 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees saw Spain cede "Northern Catalonia" to France ๐ซ๐ท
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_the_Pyrenees
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