Province of Lleida

The Province of Lleida (Western Calatan: [ˈʎejða]; Spanish: Lérida [ˈleɾiða]; Aranese: Lhèida [ˈʎɛjda]) is one of the four provinces of Catalonia. It lies in northeastern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Catalonia, and is bordered by the provinces of Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Zaragoza and Huesca and the country of France and the principality of Andorra. It is often popularly referred to as Ponent (i.e. the West).

Of the population of 414,015 (2007), about 30% live in the capital, Lleida. Some other towns in the province of Lleida are La Seu d'Urgell (the archbishop of which is also the co-prince of Andorra), Mollerussa, Cervera, Tàrrega, and Balaguer. There are 231 municipalities in Lleida.

Located in the Pyrenees, the Aran Valley is a special comarca with greater autonomy and with Aranese, a variety of Occitan, as its official language.

The Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park is located in this province.

The province enjoys a thriving fruit-growing industry, including pears and peaches.

According to the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, the provinces of Catalonia are due to be superseded by territorial units (unitats territorials) or vegueries based on a more historical political division, and the province of Lleida would become two territorial units: Ponent or Terres de Lleida Vegueria (the entire southern area) and Alt Pirineu i Aran Vegueria (the entire northern part plus the comarca of Cerdanya, part of which is currently in the Province of Girona), the county of Solsona going to the Comarques Centrals (Central Counties) Vegueria. The plan is currently on hold as of 2015.

The province of Lleida has a characteristic Catalan dialect popularly known as lleidatà, with lo/los used as the masculine definite article instead of el/els as well as its pronunciation in a large number of words. One example of the pronunciation is the a at the end of the word that is pronounced like an e. The local dialect, properly known as North-Western Catalan, is part of the Western Catalan block, and as such, shares some features with Valencian (whose dialects are also part of that group).

Lleida is the only province in Catalonia to have a second native language: Occitan, in the Aran Valley.