lo April, 1909.] Cataluna. 203 



C A T A L U \ A . 



B\ dc Castclla, Govenniicnt Viticiilturist. 



The north-east corner of Spain has for several centuries been known 

 as Cataluiia. This roughly triangular area is bounded on the north by 

 the Pyrenees and France. It lies to the east of the once Kingdom of 

 Aragon, from which it is divided by an uneven line running in a more 

 or less northerly direction from Vinaroz and Ulldecona, near the mouth 

 of the Ebro. Its south-eastern boundary is the Mediterranean. 



This region embraces the three coastal provinces of Barcelona, Tarra- 

 gona and Gerona and the inland one of Lerida — 8,000,000 acres of 

 land, varying enormously as to its soil and climate, for it extends from 

 the mild Levante, with its palms and orange groves, to the everlasting 

 snows of the Pyrenees, the highest point of which, the Pic De Aneto 

 (11,063 feet), is situated near the point where the Aragonese boundary 

 strikes the frontier of France. In many ways Cataluna differs radically 

 from the rest of Spain. A new arrival from Madrid or Pamplona is 

 at once struck by the difterence in its inhabitants, iox the Catalan be- 

 longs to a different race to the Castellano' or true Spaniard. Though 

 he may admit that he does not possess the grace of manner of the 

 latter, he will tell you that his greater energy and business activity more 

 than makes up for it, and he looks upon himself as a superior, and 

 especially a more go ahead individual than his neighbours from the south 

 and west. The Catalan is the business man of Spain, and Barcelona, the 

 capital of the region, is the foremost manufacturing and business town 

 in the Kingdom. Its population now numbers half-a-million. There is 

 in fact a certain amount of jealousy between it and Madrid which has 

 of late years caused a good deal of political unrest. Cataluna has for 

 some time been agitating for "Home Rule" on similar lines to that 

 enjoyed by Navarra. Complaints are sometimes heard about taxes levied 

 on the energy and business ability of the Catalan being spent to beautify 

 the metropolis, &c. Political questions were, of course, foreign to my 

 programme, but it is not possible to write concerning Cataluna without 

 briefly referring to the unrest one occasionally hears about, especially 

 outside of Spain. The trouble is not by any means of recent origin. 

 It has existed since early times when each of the principal regions of 

 Spain was a distinct kingdom. 



Racial differences have prevented the absorption of Cataluna being 

 as complete as that of other portions of Spain. Catalan, the language 

 chiefly spoken, is an ancient one, quite distinct from Spanish and nearly 

 identical with the French patois known as Languedoc, which is still 

 spoken in the adjoining Department of Roussillon, just across the border, 

 Avhich was at one time united to Catalufia, the two forming a coimtry 

 the ownership of which changed occasionally. Its history is most in- 

 teresting and a brief summary may be permitted. 



Inhabited originally by the Ceretani, Indigetes and Ausetani, these 

 tribes were conquered bv the Romans who named the province Tarra- 

 conensis. In the fifth century Barcelona* became the head- quarters of 

 the kingdom of the Visigoths, from whom it was captured bv the 

 Moors. Retaken later by Charlemagne, it was divided into independent 

 " seigneuries," of which the county of Barcelona was the most important. 



*Originally founded by Hanibal Barca the Carthaginian in 230 B.C. 



