Bordermarker
no 3G in Llivia (2007). Photo: Lliviés, Wikipedia.
A 12,84 km² territory of the Spanish
Pirineus region. Population about 1200, east-southeast of Andorra.
The northern area on the map is a property of
Llivia belonging to the Republic of France.
Llívia is a town of the region of Cerdanya
(that's the name in Catalonian; it is Cerdaña in Spanish and Cerdagne
in French). This historical region is divided between the French and Spanish
states. For the Catalonian nationalists, all of Cerdanya belongs to the Països
Catalans (Catalolian countries); so, in that case, Llívia wouldn't be
an exclave.
Llívia official site www.llivia.com
defined the territory as an «enclavament de l’Estat espanyol en l’Alta
Cerdanya»; that is: an «enclave of the Spanish State in High Cerdanya».
Lower Cerdanya is the territory south of the French-Spanish border.
The Catalonian nationalists call the Catalonian-speaking French region north of
the border as Catalunya Nord (Northern Catalonia).
The official languages in Llívia, as in the rest of Catalonia, are
Catalonian and Castilian (better known abroad as Spanish.
Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalonian; Cataluña in Spanish; Catalogne in
French) is an autonomous region inside the Kingdom of Spain. It's similar to
Greenland or Faroes Is. in Danmark, or even more autonomous. Catalonia has its
own parliament, government, police force, flag, national anthem, national day,
language, media, etc. The Catalonians are very proud of their history, culture
and language. The regional ("regional" in the Spanish State, de
jure definition) government of Catalonia is controlled by a moderate
nationalist party that promotes Catalonia as a non-Spanish nation that history
led to be under Castilian (=Spanish) domination for some centuries. Nowadays,
with the autonomic statute, they are short of be an independent nation. Indeed,
some de jure independent nations have less self-government than
Catalonia.
The Catalonian language is also spoken in Balearic Islands, Valencia Region,
Franja de Ponente (Eastern stripe of Aragón Region), Alghero city (in Sardegna,
Italy), South-east France / Roussillon (Catalunya Nord), and Andorra (the only
independent nation where it is an official language). The extreme nationalist
Catalonians see all those territories as the Catalonian Nation, and they call it
Païses Catalans. Those extreme nationalists are especially active in
Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia.
Acknowledgement: Mr. Francisco José Nunes dos
Santos