HUESCA, a frontier province of northern Spain, formed in 1833 of districts previously belonging to Aragon; and bounded on the north by France, east and south-east by Lerida, south west and west by Saragossa, and north-west by Navarre. Pop. estimated (1930) 242,958 ; area 5,848 sq.m. The entire northern half of Huesca belongs to the mountain system of the Pyrenees, which here attain their greatest altitudes in Aneto, the highest point of the Maladetta ridge (11,168 ft.), and in Monte Perdido (10,998 ft.). The southern half forms part of the rugged and high-lying plateau of Aragon, with the Sierra de Alcubierre on the south-western border. The whole province is included in the basin of the Ebro, and is drained by four of its principal tributaries—the Aragon in the north-west, the Gallego in the west, the Cinca in the centre, and the Noguera Ribagorzana along part of the eastern border. These rivers rise among the Pyrenees, and take a southerly course; the two last-named unite with the Segre before joining the Ebro. The Cinca receives the combined waters of the Alcanadre and Isuela on the right and the Esera on the left.
The climate is influenced locally by the cold winds of the snow capped Pyrenees and the continental conditions of the interior plateau.
Agriculture is facilitated by a fairly complete system of irri gation, by means of which much waste land has been reclaimed, although large tracts remain useless. There is good summer pas turage on the mountains, where cattle, sheep and swine are reared. The mountains are richly clothed with forests of pine, beech, oak and fir; and the southern regions, wherever cultivation is possible, produce abundant crops of wheat and other cereals, vines, mulberries and numerous other fruits and vegetables. The mineral resources include small quantities of argentiferous lead, copper, iron and cobalt, with salt, lignite, limestone, millstone, gypsum, granite and slate. The minerals are of little commercial value and there are many transport difficulties. Mineral springs are numerous. Timber, millstones, cattle, leather, and some brandy and wine are exported to France. The manufactures of Huesca are of little importance.
The Saragossa-Lerida-Barcelona railway traverses the pro vince, and gives access, by two branch lines, to Jaca, by way of Huesca, the provincial capital, and to Barbastro. Jaca is con nected with Pau (France) by rail. Huesca and Jaca are episco pal cities. Fraga was an ancient residence of the kings of Aragon; there is a fine i 2 th century parish church and a ruined Moorish citadel. Monzon, the meeting-place of the Aragonese and Catalo nian parliaments, is a town on the lower Cinca, with the ruins of a Roman fortification, and of a i 2th century castle, which was owned by the Knights Templar. (See also ARAGON.)