Left: An illustration of the Catalan Corts in the 15th century, which was the first Catalan Governement. It was made up of nobles, churchmen the bourgeois. Farmers were not represented. Note the flags on the wall, the same design as used today.
Language
Catalan or Valencian is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra and co-official in several regions of Spain. Spain has the majority of active Catalan speakers, and Catalan is the country's second most widely spoken language. It is spoken or understood by as many as 12 million people who live not only in Andorra and Spain, but also in parts of France and Italy.
History
Long before the arrival of the Romans in Spain, the territory of what is now Valencia was inhabited by Iberian peoples. This early stratum was successively overlaid with Greeks, Romans, Visigoths and Muslims.
Whatever the pre-Roman ethnic roots of eastern Spain may have been, the fact is that it was intensely Romanized. However, even greater was the subsequent Muslim influence, to the extent that except for a shortlived conquest by the Cid in 1088, the population of this part of the Peninsula was fundamentally Muslim.
The basic origin of Valencia as a national community with a political identity of its own goes back to the year 1238, when King James I conquered the city of Valencia. However, he did not annex it to the kingdom of Aragon or Catalunya, but made it into an autonomous kingdom within the group of States under his sceptre. Despite the predominantly Catalan nature of the conquest, Valencia is a self-governing State with an identity of its own and a special parliament and institutions.
After the Middle Ages, economic growth was subject to sudden halts, such as the war of the 'Germanias' (1519-1522) and the expulsion of the 'Moriscos' in 1616, which marked the beginning of its decline.
At the beginning of the 18th century, in the War of Succession, the Valencian people took the side of the Archduke of Austria while most of the nobility were in favour of Philip V. The success of the latter brought about the abolition of local charters and the end of the region's traditional autonomy.
Recently there has been bipartisn movement toward reforming the Valencian statute of autonomy to officially recognize Valencia as a nationality.
For more information, please
look at these sites:
Wikipedia encylopedia
Cultural
heritage of the Land of Valencia
Les
Corts Valencianes
Harvesting
the Valencian orange.
Orange groves still surround the town of Oliva.
The traditional Valencian dress. It is worn today for fiestas like the Fallas.
The orange were labeled with delightful designs.
Spain History web
site: History of Spain
Museums
on line:
Museo
Taurino, Valencia. Bullfighting Museum.
Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno