Covering a primarily mountainous area of15626 km², the province of Huesca has a total population of 219,345 in 2018,[2] with almost a quarter of its people living in the capital city ofHuesca. The low population density, 14.62/km², has meant that Huesca's lush valleys, rivers, and lofty mountain ranges have remained relatively pristine and unspoiled by progress.
The Romans colonised the province of Huesca, which formed the northern part ofHispania Tarraconensis, and continued to live there well into the 5th century until the arrival of theVisigoths. As a mountainous frontier region, it was difficult to dominate. The northern counties had at one time belonged to theKingdom of Navarre but split off and managed to stem earlyMoorish invasions in the Middle Ages by forming alliances between themselves and with theFranks, to become Frankishfeudalmarches. The imperative ofsovereignty, or independence, for the northern border counts, gave rise to theKingdom of Aragon, which was the precursor to the Empire orCrown of Aragon, and ultimately theKingdom of Spain.
Spanish is the primary language in the province. However, the local linguistic varieties in the center and north of the province (often calledfabla) belong to theAragonese language, which now survives mainly in the northernmostcomarcas, such as theAragon Valley inJacetania, theAlto Gallego,Sobrarbe, andRibagorza, where hitherto landlocked and isolated villages have helped the language to thrive into the 21st century.
In the easternmost areas of the province, varieties of theCatalan language are spoken, with a fewtransitional dialects difficult to classify as Aragonese or Catalan.
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