ORENSE, an inland province of Spain, is bounded on the N. by Pontevedra and Lugo, on the E. by Leon and Zamora, on the S. by Portugal (Traz oz Montes), and on the W. by Portugal (Entre Douro e Minho) and Pontevedra, and has an area of 2738 square miles. Its general character is mountainous, and its products are those common to all Galicia (q.υ.∖ of which historical province it formed a part. The principal rivers are the Minho and the Sil. The population in 1877 was 388,835; only one town (Orense) had a population exceeding 10,000.

Orense, capital of the above province, and the see of a bishop, suffragan to Santiago, stands on the western slope of Montealegre, on the left bank of the Minho. The river is here crossed by a bridge—one of the most remarkable in Spain—of seven arches, 1319 feet in length, and at its highest point 135 feet above the bed of the river, built by Bishop Lorenzo in 1230 and repaired about the middle of the 15th century. The principal feature of the town is the Gothic cathedral, also dating from Bishop Lorenzo’s time (1230); it is a comparatively small and unimportant building, but has a miraculous image, “El Santo Cristo,” of wide celebrity in Spain, which was brought from Cape Finisterre in 1330. The three warm springs to the west of the town, known as Las Burgas, attract a considerable number of summer visitors; the waters are similar to those of Carlsbad. The trade and manufactures of the place are unimportant.

Orense—the Aquae. Originis, or perhaps Salientis, of the Romans—in 1877 had a population, within the ayuntamiento, of 12,586.