Lleida (province)

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Lleida province, Catalonia

Lleida (Spanish: Lérida) is a province of north-eastern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered by the provinces of Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Zaragoza and Huesca and the countries of France and Andorra.

Of the population of 414,015 (2007), about 30% live in the capital, Lleida. Some other towns in Lleida province are La Seu d'Urgell (site of the archbishop who is the coprince to Andorra), Mollerussa, Cervera, Tàrrega, Balaguer. There are 231 municipalities in Lleida. (See List of municipalities in Lleida).

In this province there is the Aran Valley, a special comarca with more autonomy and which has Aranese, a variety of Occitan, as its official language.

The Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park is located in the province.

The province enjoys a thriving fruit-growing industry, including pears and peaches.

[edit] Language

Lleida is the local Catalan name, and also the official Spanish name.

It has a characteristic Catalan dialect popularly known as lleidatà, with lo, los used as the masculine definite article instead of el, els. The local dialect, properly known as North-Western Catalan is part of the Western Catalan block, and as such, shares some features with Valencian (whose dialects are also part of that group).