Valencian Community

The Valencian Community (Valencian: Comunitat Valenciana and also País Valencià, Spanish: Comunidad Valenciana and also País Valenciano) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid with more than five million inhabitants. Its homonymous capital Valencia is the third largest city and metropolitan area in Spain. It is located along the Mediterranean coast on the east side of the Iberian Peninsula. It borders with Catalonia to the north, Aragon and Castilla–La Mancha to the west, and Murcia to the south, and the Balearic Islands are to its east. The Valencian Community consists of three provinces which are Castellón, Valencia and Alicante.

According to Valencia’s Statute of Autonomy, the Valencian people are a nationality. Their origins date back to the 1238 Aragonese conquest of the Taifa of Valencia. The newly-founded Kingdom of Valencia enjoyed its own legal entity and administrative institutions as a component of the Crown of Aragon, under the purview of the Furs of Valencia. Valencia experienced its Golden Age in the 15th century, as it became the Crown’s economic capital. Local institutions and laws continued during the dynastic union of the early modern Spanish Monarchy, but were suspended in 1707 as a result of the Spanish War of Succession. Valencian nationalism emerged towards the end of the 19th century, leading to the modern conception of the Valencian Country. The current autonomous community under the Generalitat Valenciana self-government institution was established in 1982 after the Spanish Transition.

Official languages are Spanish and Valencian (valencià), the name under which Catalan is locally known. As of 2020, the population of the Valencian Community comprised 10.63% of the Spanish population.

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