Castilla-La Mancha is preparing to shrink. And Aragon will undergo a growth spurt. And no, we are not speaking figuratively. The contraction and expansion involved will be so tangible, so practical, that they can be measured in hectares. 2,000 people, the territory over which the municipalities of Cuenca and Albarracín have fought for over a century to delimit the El Entredicho mountain, which lies on the border between the regions of Castilla-La Mancha and Aragon.

After a long and complicated dispute dating back to the 19th century, the Government has ruled in favor of the claims of Albarracín, a town of barely a thousand inhabitants in Teruel, ending (at least for now) the debate. This case could have remained a simple curiosity if it were not for an important detail: the autonomy of Cuenca and Albarracín is also being decided within its borders.

The controversial El InterdichoThere are descriptive place names, and then there’s El Entredicho, which captures with astonishing accuracy what this mountain has been like for over a century, located between the provinces of Cuenca and Teruel. I remember the name because there’s an area of ​​about 2,000 hectares that has been “off-limits” in this way for over a century.

Using different arguments, the municipalities of Cuenca and Albarracín in Teruel debate its precise limits. The first requires geography to prevail. The second, history and who is really responsible for its management.

Dating back to the 19th century. The dispute is not new. Documentary records have been preserved that allow us to trace the dispute at least as far back as the end of the 19th century, when governments tried to define the boundaries between provinces. If agreement was difficult then, it is no less difficult now. The public mountain is crossed by the bed of the Tagus River, which is the reference point used to draw the boundaries of the province map.

The problem is that this division leaves around 2,000 hectares of forest next to Cuenca, which the Aragonese government claims to have in practice environmental and hunting management. The dispute is therefore not so much about who “owns” the land, but rather who has jurisdiction and can therefore include it on its map: the municipal council of Cuenca or Albarracín.

What are they discussing? This is the key. For Cuenca, the situation is very clear: the border between the two municipalities is naturally determined by the bed of the Tagus River. But in Albarracín, things look different. Those responsible claim that in practice the ownership and management of the mountain falls to Aragon and that it is the small municipality of Teruel that is responsible for its agricultural and forestry use. Therefore, with the border dance, they demand that the entire mountain be part of their territory.

During an interview a few months ago PioneerAlbarracín mayor David Úbeda summed up his argument in a single sentence: “The border is not determined by the geographical feature of the Tagus River; rather, the management and operational criteria that we have been implementing for decades should apply.” For this reason, I think Entredicho should not be “split in two.”

The Teruel councillor also stressed that “there has never been a dispute over the ownership of the mountain” and that “historically” it was the municipal council that was responsible for taking advantage of the mountain and that Aragon was responsible for repairing the roads. He stressed that “the dispute is a question of municipal borders, history and territory.”

And IGN came. Perhaps Albarracín and Cuenca would not have been able to reach an agreement, but at least in 2022 they found a way to shed light on the dispute: listen to one of the voices that can speak with greater authority on the subject in advance, the National Geographic Institute (IGN). Both sides presented their arguments and a few months ago, in March, the organization made its decision.

Like? Basically highlighting the reasoning of the municipal council of Aragon. Using the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the decisions of the Council of State, IGN concluded that the border should be drawn as proposed by Albarracín, the council that “can demonstrate the exercise of jurisdiction over the territory of the country” without responding to the dispute [parte de] Basin”.

…and BOE. The IGN report was, as the organization recalled in the spring, a “mandatory but non-binding” study. It was up to the Ministry of Regional Policy to issue a decision. And this came this week through the BOE, where the demarcation order was finally published. With what criteria? To comply with those of the IGN, which responded to the claims of the town of Aragon. The decision also has the approval of the Council of State.

The order therefore states that the “border line” between the municipalities of Albarracín and Cuenca should be the one recognized by the IGN in its report at the beginning of the year, and includes some important arguments. For example, it considers that there is “no legal basis” to argue that the jurisdictional border between the two regions should be based on a river, as Cuenca claims. It also recalls that Albarracín and Aragon are the ones that “appear to have implemented” the administration of El Entredicho.

So what happens now? If the dispute over El Entredicho has transcended the pages of local chronicles, this is largely due to the situation of the mountain itself: its location means that the change in borders does not only affect the towns of Cuenca and Albarracín. It also extends to larger areas: the provinces of Cuenca and Teruel, and therefore the autonomous communities of Castilla-La Mancha and Aragon.

But the fact that the Government has decided through the BOE does not necessarily mean that the dispute is resolved. Those concerned can now file a contentious administrative appeal before the National Court. In fact, Cuenca had already agreed to appeal the IGN decision in the spring. “We will fight for the delimitation to be the Tagus,” he assured. They are skeptical of Albarracín and assure that the appeal “will not change anything.” For now, the complex struggle for Mount El Entredicho adds a new chapter to its long, long history.

Images |Bartwatching (Flickr) and Francisco Anzola (Flickr)

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