{"id":509,"date":"2020-05-02T00:14:08","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T22:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurominority.eu\/?page_id=509"},"modified":"2020-05-17T00:18:18","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T22:18:18","slug":"occitania","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.eurominority.eu\/index.php\/en\/occitania\/","title":{"rendered":"Occitania"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occitania, a vast multifaceted area<\/h2>
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Occupying a central space in Latin Europe, Occitania is a fully defined nation without official recognition, where a strong sense of southern identity persists despite the decline of the language. <\/p>

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The Occitan flag is made up of an Occitan cross (or Cross of Forcalquier, cross of the count of Toul\u00adouse), gold in colour on a red background. In the right-hand corner a seven-pointed star is often found in memory of the Occitan F\u00e9librige <\/em>literary movement. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Thirty-three\nFrench departments in eight administrative regions, Val d\u2019Aran in the\nautonomous government of Catalonia and eleven Italian valleys, Occitania is a\ngenuine central European area that occupies a third of the French state, from\nthe Alps to the Pyrenees. For a long time, Occitania was a genuine bridge\nbetween the north and south of Europe. It was the cradle of the European\nRenaissance of the Middle Ages, seeing the birth of the poetry of the\nTroubadours, who reinvented love and exported the Oc language throughout\nEurope. Nowadays, an Occitan-Catalan Euroregion has strong southern impulses in\npart of the territory, even if Provence prefers to look towards Piedmont and\nthe Alps.<\/p>

The term\n\u201cOccitanian\u201d has been used for a relatively short time (20th century) but its\nexistence has been confirmed since 1290 to indicate ownership of the Oc\nlanguage by the king of France. Today, the term \u201cOccitan\u201d, is used by the\nmajority of activists. <\/p>

The language is one of the\nprimary issues advocated by activists. Demonstrations in favour of this brought\ntogether 15,000 in Carcassonne in 2005 and more than 20,000 people in B\u00e9ziers\nin 2007. Further regions developed political language projects in favour of the\nOccitan language (Midi-Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es, Languedoc-Roussillon, Aquitaine, Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes\nbut not in Provence, despite being the birthplace of the Occitanian linguistic\nand cultural renaissance in the 19th century). All regions combined, 80,000\nstudents learn (or are aware of) Occitan today.<\/p>

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Identity card <\/h3>
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Name <\/em> <\/td> Occit\u00e0nia<\/strong> | Occitan <\/em> , Catalan<\/em>
Occitanie <\/em><\/strong>| French<\/em>
Occitania <\/em><\/strong>| Italian<\/em>, Castilian<\/em> <\/td><\/tr>
Population <\/em><\/td> 16,227,241 inhab. <\/strong>(2006-2008)<\/td><\/tr>
Area<\/em> <\/td> 190,000 km\u00b2 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Languages <\/em> <\/td> Occitan<\/strong> | <\/strong> Occitan <\/em>(without official status in France, status in Spain and Italy)
Fran\u00e7ais<\/em><\/strong> | French<\/em>
Italiano <\/em><\/strong>| Italian<\/em>
Castellano <\/em><\/strong>| Castilian<\/em>
Catal\u00e0 <\/em><\/strong>| Catalan<\/em> (official) <\/td><\/tr>
Number of native speakers<\/em> <\/td> 500,000 to 3,000,000<\/strong> | Occitan <\/em> <\/td><\/tr>
State of guardianship<\/em> <\/td> France, Italy, Spain<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
Official status<\/em> <\/td> Regions without autonomous status in France, Catalan country for the Val d\u2019Aran, valleys of the Piedmont regions and Liguria for Italy<\/strong> <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Capital<\/em><\/td> Tolosa<\/strong> | <\/strong>Occitan<\/em>
(Toulouse)
&
Marseilha <\/strong>| Occitan<\/em>
(Marseille) <\/td><\/tr>
Historic religion<\/em> <\/td> Roman Catholic<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
Flag<\/em> <\/td> Crotz occitana<\/strong> | Occitan<\/em>
(Occitan Cross) <\/td><\/tr>
Anthem<\/em> <\/td> Se canta<\/strong> | Occitan<\/em>
(If it Sings)
other anthems are used <\/td><\/tr>
Motto<\/em> <\/td> None <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>
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Timeline <\/h3>
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