Catalonia is a thousand-year-old country, with its own coat of arms since the 11th century, with its own language since the 12th century, as well as a constitution conceded by Charlemagne, one of the oldest in the world.
It forms an autonomous community within Spain, with its own governmental institution, the Generalitat de Catalunya (The Catalan Parliament).
Its history, its language and different political, legal and cultural traditions have formed this country's personality and peoples.

Thanks to its industrial network and specialized development within the service industry, Catalonia has become one of the most important economic enclaves in the south of Europe, playing a decisive role.
Its important tourist and transportation infrastructures, the spectacular investment in research and development, and the way it banks on teaching equipment, are some of the foundational, highly important elements that dynamize Catalonia's socio-economic reality.

Its geography offers varied landscapes so beautiful that the richness of its contrasts makes it a region where we can find anything from high mountain areas to long beaches, cliffs and high interior plateaus, all acting together to conserve a rich, monumental heritage.

Catalonia has been charted since the 14th century, when the Atlas Catala was made (1375), attributed to the notable Jewish astrologist Abraham Cresques, commissioned by the Catalonian monarch Pedro III the Ceremonious.
Afterwards, since the 17th century, various maps exclusive to the Principality of Catalonia have been published by Dutch and French authors.


1608 Edition of Catalonia's first exclusive map.