Sobrarbe

Sobrarbe
Comarca
Bassa de la Mora or Ibon de Plan near Cotiella.
Coat of arms
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Aragon
Province	Huesca
Capital	Aínsa, Boltaña
Municipalities	List See text
Area
• Total	2,202.70 km2 (850.47 sq mi)
Population
• Total	7,293
• Density	3.3/km2 (8.6/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Sobrarbe is one of the comarcas of Aragon, Spain. It is located in the northern part of the province of Huesca, part of the autonomous community of Aragon in Spain. Many of its people speak the Aragonese language locally known as fabla.

The administrative capital is Boltaña and the economic development capital is Aínsa.

Sobrarbe was one of the Christian principalities of the Marca Hispanica, with obscure origins. Legend says there was a Kingdom of Sobrarbe, where a cross appeared upon a tree Latin: Supra Arbore.

It became part of the County of Aragon, but in the early 9th century was held for five years by Amrus ibn Yusuf, the governor of Zaragoza, being retaken after his death. Sobrarbe was joined to the County of Ribagorza in the early 10th century through marriage to an heiress. However, in the late 10th and early 11th century, a series of incursions from the south left it disorganized and depopulated, and for a time it again fell under Muslim control. This was reversed by Sancho the Great of Pamplona, who reconquered the region in 1015, similarly extending his power into Ribagorza over the subsequent years. Whatever hereditary claim might have existed was subsequently brought to Sancho through his wife Muniadona of Castile, heiress to the Ribagorza counts.

Sancho divided the territories he had united, and his third son, Gonzalo, was given the counties of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza. After the death of Gonzalo in 1038, his illegitimate half-brother Ramiro I of Aragon brought Sobrarbe and Ribagorza into his hands, creating the nucleus of the Kingdom of Aragon.