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Catalonia

nationality and autonomous community of Spain

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ5705
Source-derived summary

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy. Its territory is situated on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces or eight vegueries (regions), which are in turn divided into 43 comarques. The capital and largest city, Barcelona, is the second-most populous municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.

Modern-day Catalonia comprises most of the medieval and early modern Principality of Catalonia, with the remainder of the northern area now part of France's Pyrénées-Orientales. It is bordered by France (Occitanie) and Andorra to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the east, and the Spanish autonomous communities of Aragon to the west and Valencia to the south. In addition to its approximately 580 km of coastline, Catalonia also has major high landforms such as the Pyrenees and the Pre-Pyrenees, the Transversal Range (Serralada Transversal) or the Central Depression. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. Additionally, Catalan Sign language is recognized since 2010 upon Law 17/2010.

In 1137, the County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon formed a dynastic union, resulting in a composite monarchy, the Crown of Aragon.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Catalonia” as nationality and autonomous community of Spain. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Catalonia, nationality and autonomous.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 1137—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—0801, 1137, 1173, 1516—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Catalonia, nationality and autonomous providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Catalonia”, the useful work is to connect “nationality and autonomous community of Spain” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5705. VIAF identifies the subject as 159380011. The Library of Congress control number is n79089624. Authority coordinates are 41.850, 1.567. 5 of 13 selected statements include explicit references; 10 carry qualifiers and 2 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1137.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Catalonia”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Catalonia primary sources, Catalonia archive and Catalonia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Catalonia”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Catalonia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.