Map of Catalonia and Andorra

That the Catalan-speaking countries of Catalonia and the Principality of Andorra roll south from the peaks of the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean is no coincidence, though Andorra has never been part of Catalonia. In the Middle Ages, both were marches, buffer states between Moorish Spain and the Frankish kingdom to the north. Geographically, it is rugged country, with a number of sierras as well as the Pyrenees, especially the Sierra Litoral and its parallel Sierra Prelitoral, which to a large extent cut the Catalan coast off from its own hinterland. The Sistema Ibérica has its eastern end here, as well, separating the Ebro basin from Spain's huge central meseta, so defining Catalonia's Mediterranean (as opposed to continental) climate, temperate in winter and hot warm in the summer. The Pyrenean climate is Alpine, cold and wet in winter and warm rather than hot in summer. Administratively, Catalonia has four provinces: in the north, coming down from the Pyrenees, inland Lérida (or Lleida in Catalan) and east of that, Gerona or Girona, with its wild Costa Brava. South of them lies the densely populated province of Barcelona, and Tarragona. Andorra's only centre of population of any size is its capital, Andorra La Vella (population, roughly 21,000).

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