County of Ribagorza

The County of Ribagorza or Ribagorça (Aragonese: Condato de Ribagorza, Catalan: Comtat de Ribagorça, Latin: Comitatus Ripacurtiae) was a medieval county on the southern side of the Pyrenees, including the northeast of modern Aragón and part of the northwest of modern Catalonia, both in Spain. It was originally the independent creation of a local dynasty, later absorbed into the Kingdom of Navarre and then into the Crown of Aragon. It had a strong historical connection with the neighboring counties of Sobrarbe (to the west) and Pallars (to the east). Its territory consisted of the valleys of the rivers Ésera, Isábena, and Noguera Ribagorzana. The seat of its counts was at Benabarre. Other notable towns include Benasque, Graus and Pont de Suert. Today the western portion of the county roughly corresponds to the Aragonese comarca of Ribagorza, with its administrative centre in Graus; the eastern portion roughly corresponds to the Catalan comarca of Alta Ribagorça.

The first history of the region was written in the early fifteenth century and preserved in a fragmentum historicum ex cartulario Alaonis (historical fragment from a cartulary of Alaon), though a genealogy of the ruling dynasty of counts perhaps dating from the early 11th century appears in the Códice de Roda.