| Comarca | |
| Alt Name: | Comarques (Catalan), Eskualde (Basque) |
| Category: | Comarca |
| Territory: | Spain |
| Upper Unit: | autonomous communities |
| Current Number: | 83 formal, 465 total |
| Number Date: | 20 June 2022 |
| Government: | Comarcal council |
| Subdivision: | Municipality |
In Spain, a comarca (pronounced as /es/) is either a traditional territorial division without any formal basis, or a group of municipalities, legally defined by an autonomous community for the purpose of providing common local government services. In English, a comarca is equivalent to a district, county, area or zone.
The large majority of legally defined comarcas are in Catalonia (42) and Aragon (33), and are regulated by law and are governed by a comarcal council with specified powers. There are seven comarcas formally registered in Basque Country and one, El Bierzo, in Castile and León. In Andalusia, Galicia, Valencia and Asturias, comarcas are defined by regional law but lack any defined function.
In other regions, comarcas are traditional or historical or in some cases, contemporary creations designed for tourism promotions. In some other cases (e.g. La Carballeda) a comarca may correspond to a natural area, like a valley, river basin and mountainous area, or even to historical regions overlapping different provinces and ancient kingdoms (e.g. Ilercavonia).
In such comarcas or natural regions municipalities have resorted to organizing themselves in (commonwealth), like the Taula del Sénia, the only legal formula that has allowed those comarcas to manage their public municipal resources meaningfully.
There is also a comarca, the Cerdanya that is divided between two states, the southwestern half being counted as a comarca of Spain, while the northeastern half is part of France.
See also: Local government in Spain. There are also other groupings of municipalities in Spain including provinces, mancomunidades, metropolitan areas and the major islands of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.
Legally defined comarcas have their boundaries and functions defined by the relevant regional government (autonomous community) and so do not necessarily have boundaries consistent with provinces which are defined by the State. The remit of comarcas is very similar to that of the provinces and has been criticised for duplication.However in Catalonia, the comarca (and not the province) has been the traditional territorial organisation.
See main article: Comarcas of Aragon.
See main article: Comarcas of Asturias.
See main article: Comarcas of the Basque Country.
See main article: List of regions in Gipuzkoa.
See main article: Comarques of Catalonia. Reference:[1]
An official classification establishes three comarcas:
or sometimes four:
However, historic approaches (before the national classification into provinces) establish six comarcas:
See main article: Comarcas of Region of Murcia.
See main article: Comarcas of Navarre.
See main article: Comarques of the Valencian Community.