Valencian Community

Region - Costa Blanca Region - Province of Alicante Region - Valencian Community

Valencian Community – Comunidad Valenciana

The Valencian Community is one of the 17 autonomous communities in Spain. It has existed within its present borders since 1982. The territory is similar to that of the former Kingdom of Valencia. This belonged to the Crown of Aragon. The southernmost Province is Alicante, with the 200 km long Costa Blanca. Together with the two provinces of Castellón and Valencia, it forms the Autonomous Valencian Community.

Territory Organization in Spain

altea.me Karte Comunidad Valenciana OpenStreetMap

Where are we, anyway? In beautiful Spain, of course. And yes, on the east coast – more precisely, on the Costa Blanca. That's geopgraphically incorrect, by the way. It's just a tourist name invented for marketing purposes.  In the 50s and 60s, marketing geniuses named the coastline of the Province of Alicante like this. What is this area? The name Valencian Community has certainly belonged to everyone who visits this coastline.

And area names, like Province Alicante, Marina Alta, Marina Baixa etc. surely also.  But what do the names Comunidad, Provincia or Comarca stand for? How can you easily classify them?

Before I had researched the connections in more detail, my postal address had always irritated me. Why was there an additional Comunidad Valencia after the postcode and the city of Altea? And also Provincia de Alicante?  How could I belong to Alicante and Valencia at the same time? I had assumed that the Provinces of Alicante and Valencia would be similar, internal structures.

That is true! The confusion arose only from the similarity of the names of the Province of Valencia and the Valencian Community. The resolution is simple. The province of Valencia is only part of the Valencian Community. To it belong beside the Province of Valencia. also still the Provinces Alicante in the south and, Castellón in the north. Old-established residents will please forgive me for these banal lines. But newcomers may feel the same way as I did then.

Picture credit card Valencian Community:

Mapa comarcal oficial del País Valencià mit Creative-Commons-License “Attribution – distribution under equal conditions 2.0 generic” (US licensed).

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The Territory Hierarchy

Autonomous Community -> Province -> County -> Municipality / City.
Actually quite simple. 😉

Postal address structure

As in all countries, cities and municipalities have unique postal codes. A correct Spanish postal address contains the name or company. In addition the street and house number. And the postal code and the city / village. Also the names of the province and autonomous region. In addition, the country, if it is post from abroad. Often there are letterboxes in larger apartment blocks or urbanisations. Then the mailbox number must also be indicated. Buzón de correo or short buzón and the number.

Correcting Contaminated Sites

Many urbanisations of foreigners date back to the 60s and 70s of the last century. When the houses were built, there were often no street names. The numbers of the building plots were used. These deviate however from the street names and house numbers assigned meanwhile long since. Sometime it becomes time to correct the address and to inform all contacts. Especially if the old parcel number is still attached at the entrance. Because the wrong number is not only a blemish. Seen from the street it is the reason for considerable problems. A wrong house number increases the risk in case of fire or emergency…

A non-deliverable shipment from an online supplier is annoying enough. But this is really bad if the fire brigade can't find you. The same applies to the rescue service or the Fontanero in the event of a burst water pipe, etc.

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A correct postal address in Altea would be

(of course this is not a real address)

Carmen Gonzales
C/ Fantasia 9 – Buzón 99
03590 Altea

Comunidad Valencia, Provincia de Alicante
España

Note: C/ is the abbreviation for Calle Spanish, street. In Catalan / Valencian street is also called Carrer. Sometimes it is also a big street – Avenida or a small one, a path / Camino or a square – Plaza. In addition, address information is complicated by the sometimes special spelling in Valencian. Preferably along the coast. In the very south of the province and in the mountains Spanish = Castilian = español is spoken. Valencian is by the way an equal and official official language in the Provincia de Alicante and in the whole Comunidad Valanciana.

 

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Autonomous Communities / Comunidades Autónomas

Autonomous Communities: As almost everywhere in the world, in Spain the names, boundaries and rights of territories originate from history. Today the country is divided into 17 autonomous communities. These correspond to the German federal states or English counties. Also in Spain these areas were formerly small, Spanish kingdoms. Today they are slightly adapted in their borders and divided into provinces. Some provinces formed communities. The three provinces Castellon, Valencia and Alicante agreed the Autonomous Community of Valencia in 1982.

Provinces / Provincias

Provinces: Most autonomous communities consist of a few provinces. They are similar in size. A few from a single, larger province with the same name. The administrative official Javier de Burgos had carried out a comprehensive administrative and territorial reform in 1833 and introduced the additional division into provinces for the first time.

Its aim was based on the idea of the French départements. He wanted to create administrative units of about the same size – the provinces. So he divided the 17 larger historical areas into about 50 provinces. Most provinces have the same name as their capital. E.g. province Alicante – the capital has the same name as Alicante.

Counties / Comarcas

The smaller, municipal administrative units correspond to the German administrative districts and are called Comarcas. In these are then the towns/ ciudades and villages / Pueblos. The cities and some villages have their own municipal administrations – the town halls / Ayuntamientos.
In the altea.me Geodirectory – our address directory of the Province of Alicante you will find all municipalities with their own town halls.

Tip Google Translator

Some links lead to Spanish Wikipedia entries. If there are no German or English articles on Wikipedia, I have linked to the Spanish Wikipedia. But with Google's translator you get a good usable and readable translation. In many browsers it can be called up with the right mouse button via the context menu that appears. But often Google already displays a translation offer when you visit a foreign-language website.

A very good alternative is also the Deepl Translator. In my opinion, this translator provides very legible texts. Especially for complex and nested sentence structures. But no automatic translator is completely error-free yet. 😉

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Further articles

altea.me does not treat the whole Valencian Community. Since I live in Altea, I concentrate on my home Province of Alicante, and that is more than enough. 140 communities with their own town hall, over 160 official beaches, an endless number of exciting excursion destinations. That's a lot of work. Because there are a lot of addresses to collect, reviews and articles to write. Plus photos, videos and links. So the next few years will not be boring for me.

After the information to the area organization of the autonomous community Valencia / Valencian community, it continues now with articles to the Province of Alicante and about the Costa Blanca. In the following also still another list with articles to all nine districts in the Province of Alicante. Have fun 😉

All Counties of the Province of Alicante

Information for Travel & Holiday

In the Valencian Community there are 34 counties / comarcas in total. Nine of these comarcas are located in the Province of Alicante. Below a list with links to the altea.me editorials about the counties of the province. In addition an article to the autonomous Valencian community. and a contribution to the White Coast / Costa Blanca.

  • Vega Baja del Segura. Coastal district on the Costa Blanca. In the south of the province to Pilar de a Horadada
  • Vinalopó Bajo. Coastal county on the Costa Blanca. North of Vega Baja.
  • Vinalopó Alto and Vinalopó Medio continue the Vinalopó region. In the inland and in the mountains.
  • Campo de Alicante. Coastal county on the Costa Blanca. City & county provincial capital Alicante.
  • Hoya de Alcoy. Mountain region inland of the Campo de Alicante. With the Sub Comarca Hoya de Castalla.
  • Marina Baja / Baixa. Coastal district on the Costa Blanca. North of Campo de Alicante. Tourist capital Benidorm.
  • Condado de Cocentaina / Comtat. The mountain region. The interior of the coasts Comarcas Marina Baja / Alta
  • Marina Alta – Coastal district on the Costa Blanca. In the north on the border with the Province of Valencia, capital Denia.

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