Official name	City of Port of Spain
Native name
Image shield	POScrest.jpg
Shield size	100px
Dot x	|dot_y
Pushpin map
Pushpin label position
Coordinates region	TT
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	Trinidad and Tobago
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	Louis Lee Sing
Leader title1	Governing body
Leader name1	Port of Spain City Corporation
Established title
Established title2
Established title3
Unit pref	Imperial
Population as of	2009
Population note	Ranked 3rd
Population total	57000
Population density km2	3650
Timezone	AST
Utc offset	−4
Elevation footnotes
Postal code type
Footnotes	''HDI'' The HDI for Trinidad and Tobago is 0.814, which gives the country a rank of 19th out of 177 countries with data (2007/2008) – high
Footnotes	}}

Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 (2000 census), a metropolitan population of 128,026 (1990 unofficial estimate) and a transient daily population of 250,000. It is located on the Gulf of Paria, on the northwest coast of the island of Trinidad and is part of a larger conurbation stretching from Chaguaramas in the west to Arima in the east with an estimated population of 600,000.

Port of Spain is Trinidad and Tobago's most developed city. The city serves primarily as a retail and administrative centre and it has been the capital of the island since 1757. It is also an important financial services centre for the Caribbean and is home to two of the largest banks in the region.

The city is also home to the largest container port on the island and is one of several shipping hubs of the Caribbean, exporting both agricultural products and manufactured goods. Bauxite from the Guyanas and iron ore from Venezuela are trans-shipped via facilities at Chaguaramas, about five miles (8 km) west of the city. The pre-lenten Carnival is the city's main annual cultural festival and tourist attraction.

Today, Port of Spain is emerging as a leading city in the Caribbean region. Trinidad hosted the Fifth Summit of the Americas in 2009 whose guests included US President Barack Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Port of Spain also hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2009 and hosted a Commonwealth Business Forum in 2011.

History[link]

Port of Spain was founded near the site of the Amerindian fishing village of Cumucurapo ("place of the silk cotton trees"), located in the area today known as Mucurapo, west of the city centre. The name Conquerabia is also recorded for an Amerindian settlement in this area; this may have been a separate village, another name for Cumucurapo, or the result of miscomprehension by early Spanish settlers, who established a port here: "Puerto de los Hispanioles", later "Puerto de España". In 1560, a Spanish garrison was posted near the foot of the Laventille Hills, which today form the city's eastern boundary.

The part of today's downtown Port of Spain closest to the sea was once an area of tidal mudflats covered by mangroves. The first Spanish buildings here, in the 16th and 17th centuries, were open mud-plastered ajoupas, interspersed between large silk cotton trees and other trees. The fort was a mud-walled enclosure with a shack inside, a flagpole, two or three cannon, and few Spanish soldiers. The Caribs were transient, travelling to the mainland (now Venezuela) and up the Orinoco River. The French naval commander Comte D'Estrées visited in 1680, and reported that there was no Port of Spain. But in 1690, Spanish governor Don Sebastien de Roteta reported in writing to the King of Spain: In 1699, the alcalde of Trinidad reported to the King that the natives "were in the habit of showering scorn and abuse upon the Holy Faith and ridiculed with jests the efforts of the Holy Fathers".

By 1757, the old capital, San José de Oruña (modern Saint Joseph), about seven miles (11 km) inland, had fallen into disrepair, and Governor Don Pedro de la Moneda transferred his seat to Port of Spain, which thus became Trinidad's de facto capital. The last Spanish Governor of Trinidad, Don José Maria Chacón, devoted much of his time to developing the new capital. He compelled the island's Cabildo (governing council) to move to Port of Spain, and he limited its powers to the municipality. The 1783 Cedula of Population, which encouraged the settlement of French Catholics in the island, led to a rapid increase in the town's population and its geographical extension westwards.

From the small cluster of buildings at the foot of the Laventille Hills, eleven streets were laid out west to the area bounded by the St. Ann's River, thus establishing the grid pattern which has survived in downtown Port of Spain to the present day. Along the sea shore was the Plaza del Marina (Marine Square), a parade ground. By 1786, the town had a population of about 3,000. Realising that the St. Ann's River, prone to flooding, was impeding the expansion of the town, Chacón had its course diverted in 1787 so that it ran to the east of the city, along the foot of the Laventille Hills. (During the rainy season the river still had a tendency to overflow its banks, flooding parts of the city; over the decades its channel would be widened and paved. During the dry season the water level drops to a trickle; hence its nickname, the East Dry River.) Port of Spain was now able to continue spreading northwards and westwards, encroaching on the surrounding sugar-cane plantations.

In 1797, Trinidad was invaded by a British force under General Sir Ralph Abercromby. The British landed west of Port of Spain, at what is still called Invaders Bay, and marched towards the town. Realising his military resources were inadequate to defend the colony and wishing to avoid unnecessary destruction, Governor Chacón capitulated and was able to negotiate generous terms with Abercromby. Port of Spain remained the capital; the new British colonial government renamed most of the streets after British royalty or military figures, but allowed Chacón Street (which followed the old course of the St. Ann's River) to retain its name, in tribute to the former governor.

In 1803 Port of Spain began growing southwards, with the reclamation of the foreshore mudflats, using fill from the Laventille Hills. This began with the area immediately east of the diverted St. Ann's River; the district is still called Sea Lots today. Gradually the landfill crept west and the area south of Plaza del Marina became solid land. Further major reclamation efforts took place in the 1840s, the 1870s, and in 1906. In 1935 the Deep Water Harbour Scheme dredged the offshore area along Port of Spain's western neighbourhoods, and the dredged material was used to fill in the area south of Woodbrook. Wrightson Road, linking downtown Port of Spain to its western suburbs, was constructed at the same time. These reclaimed lands were originally called Docksite, and were home to US forces during World War II; later a number of government buildings were constructed here.

Port of Spain continued to grow in size and importance during the 19th and early 20th centuries, peaking in size in the 1960s at about 100,000 people. Since then the population within the city limits has declined in size as the downtown area has become increasingly commercial and the suburbs in the valleys north, west, and north-east of the city have grown. Today Port of Spain is the western hub of a metropolitan area stretching from Carenage, five miles (8 km) west of the city, to Arima, fifteen miles (24 km) east; this East-West Corridor runs along the southern edge of Trinidad's Northern Range.

From 1958 to 1962, Port of Spain was the temporary capital of the short-lived West Indies Federation, though there were plans to build a new federal capital at Chaguaramas, on land occupied by the US military base established during World War II. Federation Park, a residential neighbourhood in western Port of Spain intended to house employees of the federal government, is a memorial to that time.

In July 1990, an extremist Muslim group held the prime minister and members of parliament hostage for 5 days while rioting and looting shook Port of Spain. The damage was a significant setback to the city's commercial district at a time of severe economic hardship, yet businesses returned. In 2005 there was an unprecedented series of small bombings in Port of Spain which caused injuries to bystanders. They ceased in October 2005 but the perpetrator has not been charged.

Geography[link]

Port of Spain measures about 10.4 square km or about four square miles in area and is located in the northwest section of the island of Trinidad, between the Gulf of Paria, Northern Range and the Caroni Swamp.

The Northern Range is the range of tall hills across the northern portion of Trinidad and is considered an extension of the Andes mountains of South America, although that is geologically incorrect. The Northern Range runs from the Chaguaramas Peninsula in the west to Toco in the east and consists mainly of steeply dipping metasedimentary rocks. Port of Spain lies at the western end and the city climbs into the hills and valleys which are settled and largely deforested. The two tallest peaks are El Cerro del Aripo and El Tucuche which top 900 m.

The 3278 hectare protected Caroni Swamp has long formed a physical barrier to the city's expansion to the south, forcing urban growth relentlessly eastward at the expense of a traffic relieving ring road. This west coast mangrove area is the island's second largest wetland after the east coast Nariva Swamp which is almost twice as large. It has well over 160 species of birds, including the national bird, the scarlet ibis. It is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions with visitor facilities and regular guided boat tours.

Some of the city lies on land reclaimed from the Gulf of Paria, the calm sheltered bay separating Trinidad from Venezuela, while other parts climb into the hills above the city. Geographically, the Port of Port of Spain is ideal for maritime traffic, providing a natural harbour on Trinidad’s north-western coasts where adverse weather conditions are extremely rare.

Climate[link]

Port of Spain has a seasonal tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet-and-dry climate. Its wet season lasts from June to December, and its dry season lasts from January to May. Climactic conditions compound geography to result in serious flooding problems in the city on occasion. During the wet season, flooding of reclaimed land downtown is common. The well protected Gulf of Paria is normally an oasis of calm, yet swells during the hurricane season can make inter-island and inter-city ferry trips a rough experience and even cause cancellations. The city has not suffered hurricane damage in decades and yachts in the nearby international cruising mecca of Chaguaramas (7 km west of the city) flock there for the duration of the hurricane season to satisfy insurance requirements for berthing in a port south of the 12 degree north latitude line.

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Record Temps for Port of Spain (St. Clair): Record High: 38 °C (100.4 °F) Record Low: 11 °C (51.8 °F)

Cityscape[link]

Urban structure[link]

Port of Spain's official population is relatively small, and reflects the narrow city boundaries including the central business district and a number of economically depressed and a few upscale adjoining suburbs. In addition to the official population, the adjacent East-West corridor conurbation has a population close to 600,000 people and the "big city" feel with its suburban car dominated commuting. The corridor is the built-up area of north Trinidad stretching from the capital, Port of Spain, east to Arima. It includes the towns of Barataria, San Juan, St. Joseph, Curepe, St. Augustine, Tunapuna, Tacarigua, Arouca, and Five Rivers, once distinct communities and now districts within a continuous urban area. For the most part it runs along the Eastern Main Road, between the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and the foothills of the Northern Range.

Downtown[link]

The oldest part of the city is the downtown area (colloquially referred to as "Town", and pronounced by Trinis similar to the word "tong"), between South Quay (to the south), Oxford Street (to the north), the St. Ann's River (to the east), and Richmond Street (to the west). The heart of downtown is Woodford Square (formerly Brunswick Square, renamed in the 19th century for British Governor Ralph Woodford). On its northern side are City Hall and the Hall of Justice, seat of the Supreme Court; on its western side is the Red House, seat of Parliament; the Anglican Holy Trinity Cathedral is on its south side, and on the block south-west of the square is the National Library. A number of government offices are located in the immediate vicinity, and the blocks north and west of the Red House are home to many lawyers' chambers. Another busy area in Port Of Spain is Independence Square, located closer to the waterfront and to most of the high rise structures of the city.

Woodford Square itself is a green oasis in the heart of the city, with a late-Victorian fountain and bandstand, trees, benches, and lawns. It has famously been the site of many political rallies over the decades; former Prime Minister Eric Williams gave many public lectures here, dubbing it "the University of Woodford Square", and near the eastern gate is a spot which has become Port of Spain's Speakers' Corner.

Two blocks south of Woodford Square is Independence Square (formerly Marine Square), which runs along the breadth of downtown Port of Spain from Wrightson Road to the west to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the east. The section of the square immediately behind the cathedral is called Columbus Square. Before extensive land reclamation in the early 19th century, the city's shoreline ran through Independence Square.

In the early 1990s, illegal vendors who had set up shop in the middle of the square were evicted and major repaving and landscaping was undertaken. The new pedestrian area in the middle of the square was named the Brian Lara Promenade in honour of Trinidad and Tobago's star cricket batsman. Where Independence Square is bisected by Frederick Street there is a roundabout with a statue of Captain A.A. Cipriani, the early 20th-century populist politician and mayor of the city. South of the square, Frederick Street widens and becomes Broadway, which terminates at the waterfront and the Port of Spain lighthouse, no longer used as a navigational aid but considered a major landmark. (For Trinidadians born and bred in Port of Spain or its northern and north-western suburbs, "past the lighthouse"—east of the lighthouse on the Beetham Highway—means outside the city proper.)

On the southern side of Independence Square are the twin towers of the Eric Williams Financial Complex (home of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance) and the new Nicholas Tower, a commercial office building. Recently completed was the Richmond street Government Campus Plaza and the International Waterfront Centre Towers including the Hyatt Regency Hotel, with Towers C and D standing as the tallest buildings in Trinidad and Tobago and 7th and 8th tallest in the entire Caribbean region.

Frederick Street, which runs north through the city to the Queen's Park Savannah, is Port of Spain's major avenue, connecting the two downtown squares with the uptown park, and very approximately dividing downtown into retail (east) and office (west) districts. One block east, lower Henry Street is the location of a number of shops selling cloth, mostly owned by members of Trinidad's Syrian-Lebanese community. Another block over, Charlotte Street at its lower end is Port of Spain's Chinatown in all but name, home to dozens of general emporia known for bargain shopping.

Laventille[link]

East of the St. Ann's River, more commonly known as the East Dry River, are the working-class neighbourhoods of Laventille. For visitors entering Port of Spain from the airport, this neighbourhood dominates the city as it spreads over the surrounding hills. The area is known to be one of the most violent in the country for gangs, drugs, and murders, but is also the birthplace of the steelpan and, some would argue, the spiritual capital of the city since calypso; steelpan, and carnival are the life source of many Trinidadians who live in the capital. South of Laventille are Beetham Estate and Sea Lots, two other economically depressed neighbourhoods.

Belmont[link]

In north-east Port of Spain, Belmont, at the foot of the Laventille Hills, was the city's first suburb. In the 1840s–50s, parts of the area were settled by Africans rescued by the Royal Navy from illegal slaving ships. In the 1880–90s, the population swelled rapidly, and the characteristic Belmont street pattern of narrow, winding lanes developed. The black professional class built large homes in Belmont, as they were excluded from the more expensive neighbourhoods such as St. Clair and Maraval; Belmont became known as "the Black St. Clair". Many of these large homes have been renovated and converted to business use, but some remain in family hands. Belmont currently is a lower-middle to middle-class residential neighbourhood. It was the birthplace and early home of many important Carnival designers and bandleaders.

North of downtown[link]

North of downtown, the area occupied in the earlier 19th century by the Tranquillity sugar estate was formerly residential, but in recent decades has become essentially a district of office buildings, functioning as an extension of the downtown area. Oddly, this part of Port of Spain—between Oxford Street and the Queen's Park Savannah—has no name in common usage, though a century ago it was known as Tranquillity. The Port of Spain General Hospital is on upper Charlotte Street, as is the Memorial Park, while nearby on Frederick Street is the National Museum and Art Gallery. West of here is Newtown, laid out in the 1840s, bounded by Tragarete Road (south), the Queen's Park Savannah (north), Cipriani Boulevard (east), and Maraval Road (west).

Woodbrook[link]

The large Woodbrook neighbourhood, west of downtown, formerly a sugar estate owned by the Siegert family, was sold to the Town Board in 1911 and developed into a residential neighbourhood, with many of the north-south streets named for the Siegert siblings. In the last twenty years the main east-west thoroughfares, Ariapita Avenue and Tragarete Road, have become almost entirely commercialised, and Ariapita Avenue west of Murray Street has become a relatively upscale dining and entertainment "strip". A few small parks are sprinkled through the neighbourhood; Adam Smith Square and Siegert Square are the two largest. The Woodbrook Community Association is holding a series of events in August 2011 to celebrate its 100th Year Anniversary.

Just north of Woodbrook along Tragarete Road is the Queen's Park Oval, a major Test cricket ground, which is owned by the private Queen's Park Cricket Club (QPCC). At Woodbrook's western end, at the edge of Invaders Bay, is the Hasely Crawford Stadium, the national venue for football and track and field events.

St. Clair[link]

The upscale St. Clair neighbourhood in north-west Port of Spain, between the Queen's Park Savannah and the Maraval River, was developed in the 1880s, 1890s, and 1900s on former agricultural land. It is the location of some of the city's grandest mansions. At its heart, just north of the Queen's Park Oval, is King George V Park. In recent decades St. Clair has become home to various diplomatic missions.

Just northwest of St. Clair are two upscale residential neighbourhoods, Ellerslie Park and Federation Park. Duncie Park is located 200 metres west of St Clair.

St. James and Mucurapo[link]

Port of Spain's last major municipal expansion occurred in 1938, when the St. James district north of Woodbrook and west of St. Clair was incorporated into the city limits. In the late 19th century, Indian indentured labourers on nearby sugar estates established houses here, and St. James gradually became the centre of Port of Spain's Indian population, with many streets named after cities and districts in India. Western Main Road, the area's major thoroughfare, has long been the city's main nightlife district, sometimes nicknamed "the city that never sleeps".

Long Circular Road, which curves north from Western Main Road then west to meet Maraval Road, forms part of the city boundary. Its "circle" encloses Flagstaff Hill, a small rise with the US ambassador's residence at its summit, which lends its name to an area of apartment buildings at its southern foot.

South of St. James and near the seashore at Invaders Bay is Mucurapo, a mostly residential district which also contains the city's second-largest cemetery.

V.S. Naipaul, a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, grew up in St. James.

Nicki Minaj, an American rapper, was born in St. James and lived there until emigrating to the United States.

Queen's Park Savannah[link]

Port of Spain's largest open space—and one of the world's largest traffic roundabouts—is the Queen's Park Savannah, known colloquially simply as "the Savannah". It occupies about of level land, and the distance around the perimeter is about 2.2 miles (3.5 km). Once sugar land, it was bought by the town council in 1817 from the Peschier family (except for a small parcel near its centre that served as the Peschier cemetery, which remains in private hands).

At first it was used as a vast cattle pasture in what was then the town's suburbs, but by the middle of the 19th century it had become established as a park. Until the early 1990s, horse racing was held frequently at the Savannah race track, and it also contains several cricket, football and rugby pitches. Apart from a ring of trees round its perimeter, the Savannah was never really landscaped, except for the small area in its northwest corner called the Hollows, a former reservoir now drained and planted with flowering shrubs.

In 1999, Eden Shand documented the social history of the Savannah thus: ".....Today, six acres of the Savannah greens are being threatened by those who have neither taste nor a sense of history. But those acres are not yet lost. If the Savannah Saviours have their way, the rolled pitrun that has violated the sacred ground would be dug up ad the acreage regrassed. That would put paid to, not only the loss of six acres, but future attempts to alter the basic character of the Savannah.

In earlier times, however, 33 acres did get lost and, thanks to the painstaking historical research of Fr De Verteuil of St Mary's College, this story can now be told.

The story begins, not with the sale of the Savannah to the Cabildo, the City council of the day, but with the arrival in Trinidad of Henri Peschier, a French plantocrat resident in Grenada.

Attracted by generous terms offered to Catholics by the Spanish government to settle in Trinidad, Henri Peschier, his wife, children, mother-in-law and eight slaves arrived here in 1781.

He immediately sent in an application to the Spanish Governor, Martin de Salaverria, for a grant of land. The following year he was granted 179 acres, which is today the southern portion of the Savannah, that became the Paradise Estate where he grew sugar cane.

That same year, Henri's mother-in-law, Maria Magdalena de Beltgens was granted 53 acres immediately to the north of his grant, what is today the northern portion of the Savannah.

So between Henri and his mother-in-law, the Savannah of the Peschiers comprised 232 acres. If the Peschier property was conveyed to the Cabildo, how come the Savannah of today is only 199 acres. Where did 33 acres go? The disappearance has to do with the conveyance of the acreage of Maria Magdalena de Beltgens.

Maria Magdalena de Beltgens had been granted a further ten acres north of the present Savannah. There she built her Great House just south of where the President's House of today stands. She was not long in possession of these lands before she died in 1791. To satisfy the terms of her will, her property was sold to Louis de Malvault, a Royalist from Martinique, who named it La Hollandais Estate. So what was to become the Queen's Park Savannah was really two estates, Paradise and La Hollandais.

Curiously, Henri Peschier also died in 1791, leaving his widow to look after the Paradise Estates. At the turn of the century sugar went into decline and the estate became a financial liability.

But Henri's widow, Celeste Rose Peschier, declared that as long as she was alive there was no question of selling the estate. Her death in 1817 cleared the way for her heirs to dispose of the property. The Cabildo, spurred on by the Governor, Sir Ralph Woodford, made an offer of six thousand pounds for the 179 acres and this was accepted by the heirs.

The northern portion, Malvault's La Hollandais Estate, was the subject of a separate conveyance to the Cabildo that took place in 1819. But not all of La Hollandais was bought by the Cabildo. The northern most portion, together with the land on which Maria de Beltgens' residence stood, was not sold until 1821, and this to the Colonial Treasure so that Sir Ralph Woodford could convert the de Beltgens Great House into the Governor's Residence.

It would appear that in the dividing up of the La Hollandais Estate for the Cabildo and for the Colonial Treasury, the Cabildo ended up with 199 acres. These 199 acres were eventually transferred from the Cabildo to the Colonial government in 1825 and fenced. It was officially named Queen's Park in 1845.

The Savannah remained an unpaved green expanse of Crown Land from 1821, right through the colonial period, up to our attaining independence.

Immediately north of the Savannah—also the northern limit of the city of Port of Spain—are the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Emperor Valley Zoo, President's House (recently abandoned after one end fell down), the official residence of the prime minister, and Queen's Hall, the city's major performing arts venue. Lady Chancellor Road, which ascends the hills overlooking the Savannah, is one of Port of Spain's most exclusive residential areas and is the current home of former West Indies cricketer and record breaking batsman, Brian Lara.

On the Savannah's southern side is the Grand Stand, formerly used for viewing horse races, now used for various cultural events, most notably Carnival, when a temporary North Stand and raised stage are constructed in front of the Grand Stand, creating the "Big Yard", Carnival's central location since the early 20th century (previously, the main viewing area for Carnival was in downtown Port of Spain). From this location the Parade of Bands is broadcast live to the nation on Carnival Monday and Tuesday; it is also the venue for the Calypso Monarch and Carnival King and Queen Competitions and the finals of the Panorama steelpan competition. The architecturally soothing arches and curves of the Port of Spain National Academy for the Performing Arts (see picture and caption) dominate the south boundary of the Savannah between the green trimmed landmarks of Memorial Park (in remembrance of fallen soldiers during World Wars I and II) and the gingerbread styled, limestone built, colourful splendour of the Knowsley Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building.

The western edge of the Savannah, along Maraval Road, is the location of the Magnificent Seven, a group of late Victorian and Edwardian buildings built in an eccentric and flamboyant variety of styles. These are the recently well restored Queen's Royal College; the residences of the Anglican bishop and the Roman Catholic archbishop; Whitehall, once a private residence, then the office of the prime minister from 1963 to 2010 ; Mille Fleurs, once a private residence, is undergoing full restoration as a public museum and headquarters for the National Heritage Trust and was sold to the Government in 1979; Roomor, an ornate black-and-white chateau-like building that remains a private residence; and Stollmeyer's Castle, a turreted house supposedly modelled on Balmoral Castle. The slow pace of building restorations over the years remains a concern.

Suburbs[link]

Immediately north and northwest of Port of Spain lie the suburbs of Cascade, St. Ann's, Maraval and Diego Martin. The last two districts fall outside the municipal boundary, but are sometimes considered extensions of the city. St. Ann's is notable for being the location of the Prime Minister's official residence and diplomatic centre. Cascade, a mainly suburban area with treed lot type housing is located to the south-eastern area of St.Ann's. Cascade borders St.Ann's by a hill locally known as Mount Hololo.

Maraval is home to the exclusive Trinidad Country Club and right next door to the popular Long Circular Mall. Further afield in Diego Martin lies the suburb of Westmoorings, which is known for its expensive Miami style highrise apartments facing the seafront. One of Trinidad's poshest shopping centres, The Falls, lies at the centre of these developments. As you head west beyond Carenage settlement is sparse, however the peninsula known as Chaguaramas, which was once a large US Army Base, has become a mecca for hundreds of international cruisers and a world major yacht storage and repair hub.

To the east along the east-west corridor, also falling outside city limits, lie the large towns of San Juan, Tunapuna and Arima. With congestion rendering downtown inaccessible during peak hours, major shopping centres like Valsayn Shopping Centre, Grand Bazaar and Trincity Mall have sprung up at highway intersections. The last two are noted for being among the largest shopping centres in the Caribbean, with of commercial space in each. Two large Universities have been established in the eastern section of the E-W corridor – the regional University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus and the multi campus local University of Trinidad and Tobago whose main campus is on the Arima outskirts.

Housing[link]

Housing in Port of Spain ranges from luxurious waterfront apartments to hillside shacks lacking indoor plumbing and motor vehicular access. Continued pressure for expansion of commercial development in Woodbrook and uptown POS (Port of Spain proper) has led to a rapid rate of decline in the city's population over the past 4 decades. The ultra luxurious private development scheme at Damien street Woodbrook recently provided 350 apartments but is very high cost and unaffordable to most of the population.

To address the problem, East Port of Spain Development Company was formed in 2005 with a mandate to develop and redevelop a zone in east Port-of-Spain to improve the economic, social and physical environment of those areas. Large parts of Port of Spain's Eastern entrance have been cleared of old warehouses and substandard housing.

There are several new government housing projects in the city which are under construction or planned.

Governance[link]

Port of Spain is administered by the Port of Spain City Corporation. There are 12 councillors and 4 aldermen. The mayor is elected from the membership of the council. The Council is presided over by His Worship the Mayor who is effectively the chief custodian of the City. It formulates policy and gives direction for the running of the City through a number of Standing Committees which each meet at least once per month.

Decisions are then ratified at the Statutory Meeting of the Council which takes place on the last Thursday of each month.The policies and directives of the Council are executed by the Administrative arm of the Corporation which is headed by the Chief Executive Officer and has under his charge a number of senior officers and a workforce of about 3,000 daily-paid and 300 monthly-paid employees.

The Chief Executive Officer and his staff are public servants functioning under the regulations of the Statutory Authorities Service Commissions Ordinance.

Mayors[link]

Following an election in 1887, Michel Maxwell Philip became the mayor, a position that had previously been held by only whites. Bridget Brereton wrote in her 2002 book ''Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad 1870-1900'' that "perhaps this marks the emergence of the coloured man as a political force in Trinidad".

Louis Lee Sing is the current mayor of Port of Spain.

The electoral districts are:

St. James East

St. James West

Woodbrook

Northern Port of Spain

Belmont East

Belmont North & West

Southern Port of Spain

East Dry River

St. Ann's River South

St. Ann's River Central

St. Ann's River North

Belmont South

Port of Spain became a "city" in 1914; the ordinance was passed on May 29 and was proclaimed by the Governor on June 25, 1914. The first city councillors were elected on November 2. Among them were oil pioneer Randolph Rust, lawyer and social activist Emmanuel Mzumbo Lazare and Dr. Enrique Prada, who was elected chairman by the council and became the first mayor of the City of Port of Spain.

Economy[link]

Port of Spain is a shopping and business centre for much of the country. Most government offices are also located in the city and many important Government services can only be accessed in the Ministry offices located downtown. Within recent years, local banks headquartered here have helped it become a financial centre for the Caribbean and Central America region. Two of the largest banks in the Caribbean, Republic Bank, Trinidad and Tobago Limited and RBTT (reacquired by the Royal Bank in 2008) are headquartered here or base their Caribbean operations in the city.

Trinidad's economy is based on natural gas and oil. No heavy industrial sites are located in Port of Spain, but a major oil refinery and many petrochemical and iron and steel plants exist or are planned for sites south of it and closer to Trinidad's second city of San Fernando. However, the oil and gas majors and some service companies have located their headquarters in the city to be in close proximity to government services, infrastructure and the high quality of life many citizens of Port of Spain enjoy. Some of the oil and gas company headquarters located in Port of Spain (many others are found in San Fernando & Point Lisas)include BPTT, BGTT (British Gas), BHP Billiton, EOG Resources, Fluor, Repsol YPF, Atlantic LNG and Baker Hughes.

Trinidad and Tobago is considered one of the wealthiest nations in the Caribbean and some of this wealth is on display in Port of Spain. High-income proceeds from the international sale of natural gas has aided the country in the Port of Spain International Waterfront project constructed on former Port Authority Land. The Port of Port of Spain is the country's major port for containerized shipping followed by the Port of Point Lisas. Cruise ships also dock at the port which has: public international cargo-handling facilities for containerised, break-bulk, Roll-on/Roll-off and dry/liquid bulk cargo The Port also operates the ferry service between Trinidad & Tobago, as agents of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Tourism is targeted for expansion and is a growing sector in the city's economy, but it is not as important as in other Caribbean cities. Port of Spain has a large agricultural market, known as the "central market" where food produced in the surrounding hinterland is traded.

Education[link]

thumb|upright|St. Mary's College POS 2008 In 1999/2000 there were 40 Government/Assisted schools located in the Port of Spain Administrative Area. There were 17,957 enrolled in primary schools and 15,641 enrolled in secondary school. In secondary schools, 7,567 were male and 8,074 were female. Education is free and compulsory up to the age of 12. Prominent secondary schools in Port of Spain include:

Fatima College

St. Mary's College

Queen's Royal College

Trinity College,Moka Maraval

St. Joseph's Convent POS

Bishop Anstey High School

Holy Name Convent Girls

St Francois Girls College

Port of Spain school leavers, as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago do not pay tuition to study at local & regional public and private tertiary institutions except for graduate studies where they pay a heavily subsidised fee. There are several prominent tertiary institutions in Port of Spain and environs, in particular the St. Augustine campus of the 3 campus, Caribbean-wide University of the West Indies, which had a local campus enrollment of 15,571 in academic year 2007/2008. The University of Trinidad and Tobago has several campuses and institutes in the greater Port of Spain area including the research based Natural Gas Institute of the Americas and the Chaguaramas Centre for Maritime Studies.

Demographics and architecture[link]

!Year ! align=center align=center align=center align=center align=center

style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"	Port of Spain population
City proper!! Note
1901	54,100	N/A
1946	92,793 ||	Annexation of St. James (1938)
1960	93,954 ||	N/A
1970	73,950 ||	N/A
1988	59,200 ||	N/A
2000	49,031 ||	N/A

!Administrative Corporation !

style="text-align:center;" colspan="3"	East-West Corridor population
Population !!
Port of Spain	49,031
Diego Martin	105,720
San Juan/Laventille	157,295
Tunapuna/Piarco	203,975
Arima	32,278
Total	548,299
!Source: 2000 Census!!

Port of Spain has a population of 23,415 males and 25,616 females, with 5,694 businesses and is home to 14,487 households with an average size of 3.18 according to the 2000 census.

Port of Spain's diverse population reflects two centuries of immigration and this shows in the architecture of its buildings. The city features French colonial 'ginger bread' style houses, buildings with New Orleans reminiscent wrought-iron railings and wooden fretwork set beside modern high-rise towers and strip malls with a mish-mash of gothic-style cathedrals, mosques and Hindu temples testifying to the diversity of cultures. It is home to African, Indian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Venezuelan, Chinese and Syrian immigrants, most of them arriving since the Spanish Cedula of Population of 1783. Prominent Port of Spain citizens are Sir Vidiadhar Naipaul (Nobel Prize Literature 2001), Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize Literature 1992) and former West Indies cricketer Brian Lara.

Culture and entertainment[link]

Trinidad has a rich tapestry of cultures which create occasions for celebrations beyond many's expectations for a small Caribbean island; thus there is much to see and do after work hours in Port of Spain, even long after the annual Carnival celebration. While the popularity of the major shopping area around Frederick Street as a nightspot centre has remained steady or declined, expansion of entertainment venues into the malls and outlying towns has occurred. St. James, 'uptown' Port of Spain (St. Clair and Woodbrook) have seen a boom in nightclubs, sports bars and fine dining restaurants as workers from Government offices and large corporations disgorge on evenings from high-rise headquarters built in newly commercialized formerly upscale neighbourhoods.

Sports[link]

Port of Spain hosts major sporting venues including the Queen's Park Oval, Hasely Crawford Stadium, the Jean Pierre Complex and various sporting fields on the Queen's Park Savannah. Port of Spain was among the host cities of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The city hosted the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championship.

Arts, entertainment, and nightlife[link]

Nightlife and restaurants[link]

Port of Spain offers a range of nightclubs and entertainment complexes; a few of the best and most expensive ones arguably being Zen, 51 degrees, Coco Lounge, Katalyst and Shakers; however the list changes frequently as partygoers' tastes change. International and regional performers such as Beyoncé, Chris Brown, Sean Paul, Rihanna, Outfield, Cascada, Akon, Usher, Maroon 5 and Kumar Sanu to name a very few, have visited Port of Spain.

A great variety of restaurants including Italian, Mexican, Thai, Venezuelan-Panyol, French, Japanese, Chinese,Creole, American and Indian can be found in Port of Spain with many concentrated on Ariapita Avenue, a popular entertainment strip, which also includes a Jazz Lounge and a Wine Tasting restaurant. MovieTowne's Fiesta Plaza, a tribute to Bourbon Street New Orleans, on the city's foreshore, features many new restaurants, open air dining and a bandstand with live entertainment. Port of Spain's award winning restaurants provide a wide range of local and international cuisines, accompanied by the traditional fast food chains. Many of the city's restaurants can be sampled at the Taste T&T; Food Festival hosted at the Jean Pierre Sports Complex annually in May.

Arts[link]

Port of Spain is also a cultural hub for the country. Regular dance and theatre productions occur at: The Little Carib at the corner of Robert and White Street which has provided a cultural centre for Woodbrook for the past fifty years. It is one of the oldest theatres in the country, established by local dance legend, Beryl McBurnie, in 1947. Queen's Hall was built in 1959 through the efforts of the music community led by Mrs May Johnstone, a music teacher and partially funded by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago. It is designed as a multi purpose facility to accommodate theatrical presentations and various community activities including sport and has seating for 782. The Hall is located on 3 ½ acres of land in St. Ann's. Its eminent neighbours are the President's House on one side and the Prime Minister's residence on the other.

The Central Bank Auditorium at the Eric Williams Plaza constructed in 1986 stands as one of the finest facilities of its type in the country. The facility was constructed not only to serve the Bank's needs, but also as a civic contribution aimed at enhancing the performing arts in Trinidad and Tobago. The Auditorium is located at the South-East corner of the Central Bank building. It has a seating capacity for 400 and provides computerised lighting and sound controls. The Auditorium also boasts of an infra-red listening system designed to facilitate the hearing impaired.

The Port of Spain National Academy for the Performing Arts (see picture and caption) is the city's newests Arts centre and is meant to be the home for the development of talent in the performing arts, with particular focus on Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument, the steel pan. The architectural design is reminiscent of the national flower the Chaconia. At its highest point, the grand, modern building rises up to enhancing the state-of-the-art acoustics and offering an inspirational setting for the enjoyment and training of the performance arts. A performance and teaching academy, the Port of Spain National Academy for the Performing Arts features an array of open vistas for the enjoyment of the performance arts as well as contemporary classrooms, teaching halls and other practice spaces for the cultivation of future performance artistes. The . facility features a 1500 seat acoustically designed performance hall and a hotel for visiting performers. The performance centre was completed in November 2009 and hosted Queen Elizabeth II and other leaders of the Commonwealth for the opening of the Commonwealth meeting in Port of Spain. The proposed National Carnival and Entertainment Centre which is a state-of-the-art, locally designed 15–18,000 seat cultural centre to be built in the Queen's Park Savannah, the setting for the array of celebrations that are the highlights of the city's diverse national cultural calendar. Port of Spain is the centre of one of the largest Carnivals in the world, with tens of thousands participating in the pre-Lenten street party.

One of Port of Spain's most prominent artisans is Peter Minshall, who creates 'mas' or masquerade costumes for Trinidad's annual carnival. Internationally, he helped design the opening awards ceremonies for the 1987 Pan American Games, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the 1994 Football World Cup and the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Museums[link]

The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago is the country’s most important museum. It displays depictions of national festivals, Carnival, life during the World War II and artifacts from the country’s earliest settlers, the Amerindians. There are also displays by leading local and international artists. The museum was established in 1892 and was originally called the Royal Victoria Institute, as it was built as part of the preparation for Queen Victoria’s jubilee. The National Museum has two smaller branch museums; Fort San Andres which is located on South Quay, opposite City Gate and The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Museum which is located at the Old Police Headquarters on St. Vincent Street.

Crime[link]

Port of Spain and its immediate environs have a higher crime rate than any other part of Trinidad. Homicides countrywide rose from fewer than 50 in the 1980s, to 97 in 1998, then to 360 in 2006 (30 murders per 100,000 persons). It rose to approximately 500 in 2008 but decreased significantly in 2010 and 2011.

Many murders are drug and gang related, especially in the depressed communities of East Port of Spain. The police administration has responded by improving the working conditions of officers, increasing the use of forensic evidence and surveillance technology (CCTV cameras) as well as hiring overseas experts.

Reports of kidnappings for ransom which were on the rise a few years ago have declined dramatically since 2006. However, theft and violent crimes remain prevalent to this date, while crime and the perception of crime continues to hamper the economic prospects of the city.

Infrastructure[link]

Health[link]

Five (5) RHAs deliver public health care services to the population of Trinidad and Tobago. RHAs (Regional Health Authorities) are autonomous bodies that own and operate health facilities in their respective regions. The Port of Spain municipality is served by the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA). The NWRHA administers and manages the Port of Spain General Hospital, St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital, St. James Medical Complex and 17 health centres that serve a catchment area of 500,000 persons. The Port of Spain General Hospital is one of the major trauma centres in the Southern Caribbean.

The demand for speedy quality health service has led to the establishment of private hospitals. The major ones are:

Westshore Medical Centre, Cocorite

St. Clair Medical Centre, St. Clair

The Seventh-day Adventist Community Hospital, Cocorite

In the greater Port of Spain area, the public and fully state funded Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, run by the North Central RHA is also a major provider of medical services. It includes the Wendy Fitzwilliam Children's Ward and the Mt. Hope Women's Hospital.

Transport[link]

Road[link]

Transportation in and out of Port of Spain is plagued by heavy traffic delays at morning and evening rush hour. Port of Spain Highways are equipped with CCTV cameras, road signage, lane markings, cat eyes and other safety features.

Eastern Entrance: Traffic enters the city from the east along the six-lane Churchill-Roosevelt Highway which ends at Barataria, just east of the city and becomes the Beetham Highway for the remainder of the journey into Port of Spain, then narrows to four lanes just before the Waterfront Centre where it is then called Wrightson Road. Alternatively, traffic can turn north at Barataria and enter the city via the two-lane mountainous Lady Young Road. The Eastern Main Road runs parallel to the highway and enters the city at the eastern end of Independence Square. The Priority Bus Route (which is dedicated to public and private bus and minibus traffic and runs along the former Trinidad Government Railway line) enters the city at City Gate.

Western Entrance:Traffic from the west enters the city through the Western Main Road and the four-lane Audrey Jeffers Highway. Several narrow mountain roads allow for alternate entry points from the west.

Public transport[link]

City Gate serves as a transportation hub for public buses and private mini-buses (locally known as maxi-taxis). City Gate is located on South Quay just south of Independence Square. A ferry service links Port of Spain with Scarborough, Tobago and a water taxi service, restarted in December 2008 (Trinidad's west coast towns were once served by steamship), links it with San Fernando.

Airport[link]

Like the rest of the island of Trinidad, Port of Spain is served by the Piarco International Airport located in Piarco, approximately 10 km east of Port of Spain.

Upgrade plans[link]

To ease the current traffic woes that result in two to three hour commutes during rush hours, a number of projects are in various stages of implementation. The upgrading of the Churchill-Roosevelt highway to a grade separated expressway and the extension of water ferry services from Port of Spain to the major urban hubs along the west coast are particularly notable.

Utilities[link]

Electricity generation is handled by Powergen, while electrical distribution is handled by the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC;). Powergen has one natural gas-fired generation plant located on Wrightson Road in Port of Spain. Additional power can be supplied from power generation facilities located in Point Lisas and Penal.

Telecommunications are regulated by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT). It has successfully de-monopolised the industry, granting several new mobile licenses in 2005 for two private companies, Digicel and Laqtel to offer wireless service in competition with TSTT. Laqtel which would have offered Trinidad and Tobago's first CDMA (3G) network had its license revoked by the TATT in 2008. Fixed-line telephone service and broadband was also once a monopoly controlled by Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT). Flow, the monopoly cable provider, also now offers these services to its wide customer base. Satellite, Wifi, EDGE, GPRS, DSL and Cable broadband services in excess of 6 Mbit/s are available throughout the city. There are Wifi hotspots at all major hotels and for free in coffee shops, malls and at the airport. Broadband and Mobile competition has resulted in lower rates and wider availability of services for consumers. Water and sewerage are under the purview of the Water and Sewerage Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (WaSA). Much of the city's water supply comes from the nariva Arena Dam located near the airport. This Caroni Water Treatment Plant was upgraded in 2000 to a total daily production of 75 m.g.d.

Another important facility, the new Beetham Waste Water Treatment Plant, began to treat domestic waste to international standards in 2004. The plant serves customers within Greater Port-of Spain and environs from Pt. Cumana in the west to Mt. Hope in the east including Diego Martin and Maraval.

Most solid waste is disposed of in the Beetham Landfill, commonly known as ''La Basse''.

Diplomatic missions in Trinidad and Tobago[link]

Twin and Sister cities[link]

Port of Spain is a twinned or is a sister city with some of the following cities: Atlanta, Georgia, USA Morne-à-l'Eau (Morne-a-Lou), Guadeloupe Georgetown, Guyana Richmond, California, USA St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Lagos, Nigeria Yeosu, South Korea

See also[link]

List of cities in the Caribbean

References[link]

External links[link]

Port of Spain City Corporation

The Trams and Trolleybuses of Port of Spain

Category:Capitals in the Caribbean Category:Populated coastal places in Trinidad and Tobago Category:Port cities in the Caribbean Category:Ports and harbours of Trinidad and Tobago Category:Regional corporations and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago

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Official name	Reino de España
Native name
Conventional long name	Kingdom of Spain
Common name	Spain
Image coat	Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
Map caption
National motto	(Latin)"Further Beyond"
National anthem	(Spanish)"Royal March"
Official languages	Spanish
Regional languages	Basque, Catalan/Valencian, Galician and Occitan
Officially recognised languages	Aragonese, Asturian and Leonese
Demonym	Spanish, Spaniard
Capital	Madrid
Largest city	capital
Government type	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Leader title1	King
Leader title2	Prime Minister
Leader name1	Juan Carlos I
Leader name2	Mariano Rajoy
Legislature	Cortes Generales
Upper house	Senate
Lower house	Congress of Deputies
Sovereignty type	Formation
Sovereignty note	16th century
Sovereignty note	15th century
Established event1	Traditional date
Established date1	569 (ascension to the throne of Liuvigild)
Established event2	Dynastic
Established date2	1479
Established event3	''De facto''
Established date3	1516
Established event4	''De jure''
Established date4	1715
Established event5	''Nation state''
Established date5	1812
Established event6	Constitutional democracy
Established date6	1978
Accessioneudate	1 January 1986|EUseats 54
Area km2	504,030
Area sq mi	195,364
Area rank	51st
Area magnitude	1 E11
Percent water	1.04
Population estimate	46,030,109
Population estimate year	2010
Population estimate rank	27th
Population density km2	93
Population density sq mi	231
Population density rank	106th
Gdp ppp year	2011
Gdp ppp	$1.413 trillion
Gdp ppp per capita	$30,625
Gdp nominal	$1.495 trillion
Gdp nominal year	2011
Gdp nominal per capita	$32,360
Hdi year	2011
Hdi	0.878
Hdi rank	23rd
Hdi category	very high
Gini	32
Gini year	2005
Currency	Euro (€)
Currency code	EUR
Time zone	CET
Utc offset	+1
Time zone dst	CEST
Utc offset dst	+2
Dst note	Except the Canary Islands which observe UTC+0 (WET) (UTC+1 during summer time)
Date format	dd.mm.yyyy (Spanish; CE)
Drives on	right
Cctld	.es
Calling code	34 }}

Spain ( ; , ), officially the Kingdom of Spain (),{{efn|In Spain, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous (regional) languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows: , ; , ; ; , ; , ; , ; , .}} is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.

Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of , it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.

Because of its location, the territory of Spain was subject to many external influences since prehistoric times and through to its dawn as a country. Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th century, following the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs and the completion of the reconquest, or ''Reconquista'', of the Iberian peninsula in 1492. Conversely, it has been an important source of influence to other regions, chiefly during the modern era, when it became a global empire that has left a legacy of over 500 million Spanish speakers today, making it the world's second most spoken first language.

Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a developed country with the twelfth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, and very high living standards, including the tenth-highest quality of life index rating in the world, as of 2005. It is a member of the United Nations, European Union, NATO, OECD, and WTO.

== Etymology == The true origins of the name ''España'' and its cognates "Spain" and "Spanish" are disputed. The ancient Roman name for Iberia, ''Hispania'', may derive from poetic use of the term ''Hesperia'' to refer to Spain, reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (''Hesperia'', ''Εσπερία'' in Greek) and Spain, being still further west, as ''Hesperia ultima''.

It may also be a derivation of the Punic ''Ispanihad'', meaning "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck in the region from the reign of Hadrian show a female figure with a coney at her feet. There are also claims that ''España'' derives from the Basque word ''Ezpanna'' meaning "edge" or "border", another reference to the fact that the Iberian peninsula constitutes the southwest of the European continent.

The humanist Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word ''Hispania'' evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning "city of the western world". Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term ''span'' is the Phoenecian word ''spy'', meaning "to forge metals". Therefore ''i-spn-ya'' would mean "the land where metals are forged".

History [link]

The Iberian peninsula enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came under the rule of Rome. During the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process that took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas. A global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe and the leading world power for a century and a half and the largest overseas empire for three centuries.

Continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire and left the country politically unstable. Prior to the Second World War, Spain suffered a devastating civil war and came under the rule of an authoritarian government, whose rule oversaw a period of stagnation but that finished with a powerful economic surge. Eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. In 1986, Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a cultural renaissance and steady economic growth.

Prehistory and pre-Roman peoples [link]

Archaeological research at Atapuerca indicates the Iberian Peninsula was populated by hominids 1.2 million years ago. Modern humans first arrived in Iberia, from the north on foot, about 32,000 years ago. The best known artifacts of these prehistoric human settlements are the famous paintings in the Altamira cave of Cantabria in northern Iberia, which were created about 15,000 BCE by cro-magnons.

Archaeological and genetic evidence strongly suggests that the Iberian Peninsula acted as one of several major refugia from which northern Europe was repopulated following the end of the last ice age.

The two main historical peoples of the peninsula were the Iberians and the Celts. The Iberians inhabited the Mediterranean side from the northeast to the southeast. The Celts inhabited the Atlantic side, in the north, center (Celtiberian), northwest and southwest part of the peninsula. Basques occupied the western area of the Pyrenees mountain range and adjacent areas.

In the south of the peninsula appeared the semi-mythical city of Tartessos (c.1100 BC), whose flourishing trade in items made of gold and silver with the Phoenicians and Greeks is documented by Strabo and the Book of Solomon. Between about 500 BC and 300 BC, the seafaring Phoenicians and Greeks founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast. The Carthaginians briefly exerted control over much of the Mediterranean side of the peninsula, until defeated in the Punic Wars by the Romans.

Roman Empire and the Gothic Kingdom [link]

During the Second Punic War, an expanding Roman Empire captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast from roughly 210 BC to 205 BC. It took the Romans nearly two centuries to complete the conquest of the Iberian peninsula, though they had control of much of it for over six centuries. Roman rule was bound together by law, language, and the Roman road.

The cultures of the Celt and Iberian populations were gradually romanized (Latinized) at differing rates in different parts of Hispania. Local leaders were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class Hispania served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold, wool, olive oil, and wine. Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. Emperors Hadrian, Trajan, Theodosius I, and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania. Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century CE and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century CE. Most of Spain's present languages and religion, and the basis of its laws, originate from this period.

The weakening of the Western Roman Empire's jurisdiction in Hispania began in 409, when the Germanic Suevi and Vandals, together with the Sarmatian Alans crossed the Rhine and ravaged Gaul until the Visigoths drove them into Iberia that same year. The Suevi established a kingdom in what is today modern Galicia and northern Portugal. As the western empire disintegrated, the social and economic base became greatly simplified: but even in modified form, the successor regimes maintained many of the institutions and laws of the late empire, including Christianity.

The Alans' allies, the Hasdingi Vandals, established a kingdom in Gallaecia, too, occupying largely the same region but extending farther south to the Duero river. The Silingi Vandals occupied the region that still bears a form of their name –''Vandalusia'', modern Andalusia, in Spain. The Byzantines established an enclave, Spania, in the south, with the intention of reviving the Roman empire throughout Iberia. Eventually, however, Hispania was reunited under Visigothic rule.

Muslim Iberia (711–1492)[link]

In the 8th century, nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered (711–718) by largely Moorish Muslim armies from North Africa. These conquests were part of the expansion of the Umayyad Islamic Empire. Only a small area in the mountainous north-west of the peninsula managed to resist the initial invasion.

Under Islamic law, Christians and Jews were given the subordinate status of dhimmi. This status permitted Christians and Jews to practice their religions as ''people of the book'' but they were required to pay a special tax and to be subject to certain discriminations.

Conversion to Islam proceeded at a steadily increasing pace. The ''muladies'' (Muslims of ethnic Iberian origin) are believed to have comprised the majority of the population of Al-Andalus by the end of the 10th century.

The Muslim community in the Iberian peninsula was itself diverse and beset by social tensions. The Berber people of North Africa, who had provided the bulk of the invading armies, clashed with the Arab leadership from the Middle East. Over time, large Moorish populations became established, especially in the Guadalquivir River valley, the coastal plain of Valencia, the Ebro River valley and (towards the end of this period) in the mountainous region of Granada.

Córdoba, the capital of the caliphate, was the largest, richest and most sophisticated city in western Europe. Mediterranean trade and cultural exchange flourished. Muslims imported a rich intellectual tradition from the Middle East and North Africa. Muslim and Jewish scholars played an important part in reviving and expanding classical Greek learning in Western Europe. The Romanized cultures of the Iberian peninsula interacted with Muslim and Jewish cultures in complex ways, thus giving the region a distinctive culture. Outside the cities, where the vast majority lived, the land ownership system from Roman times remained largely intact as Muslim leaders rarely dispossessed landowners, and the introduction of new crops and techniques led to a remarkable expansion of agriculture.

In the 11th century, the Muslim holdings fractured into rival Taifa kingdoms, allowing the small Christian states the opportunity to greatly enlarge their territories. The arrival from North Africa of the Islamic ruling sects of the Almoravids and the Almohads restored unity upon the Muslim holdings, with a stricter, less tolerant application of Islam, and saw a revival in Muslim fortunes. This re-united Islamic state, experienced more than a century of successes that partially reversed Christian gains.

Fall of Muslim rule and unification [link]

The ''Reconquista'' ("Reconquest") was the centuries-long period of expansion of Iberia's Christian kingdoms. The Reconquista is viewed as beginning with the Battle of Covadonga in 722, and was concurrent with the period of Muslim rule on the Iberian peninsula. The Christian army's victory over Muslim forces led to the creation of the Christian Kingdom of Asturias along the northwestern coastal mountains. Shortly after, in 739, Muslim forces were driven from Galicia, which was to eventually host one of medieval Europe's holiest sites, Santiago de Compostela and was incorporated into the new Christian kingdom. Muslim armies had also moved north of the Pyrenees, but they were defeated by Frankish forces at the Battle of Poitiers, Frankia. Later, Frankish forces established Christian counties on the southern side of the Pyrenees. These areas were to grow into the kingdoms of Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. For several centuries, the fluctuating frontier between the Muslim and Christian controlled areas of Iberia was along the Ebro and Duero valleys.

The breakup of Al-Andalus into the competing taifa kingdoms helped the long embattled Iberian Christian kingdoms gain the initiative. The capture of the strategically central city of Toledo in 1085 marked a significant shift in the balance of power in favour of the Christian kingdoms. Following a great Muslim resurgence in the 12th century, the great Moorish strongholds in the south fell to Christian Spain in the 13th century—Córdoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248—leaving only the Muslim enclave of Granada as a tributary state in the south.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Marinids Muslim sect based in North Africa invaded and established some enclaves on the southern coast but failed in their attempt to re-establish Muslim rule in Iberia and were soon driven out. The 13th century also witnessed the Crown of Aragon, centred in Spain's north east, expand its reach across islands in the Mediterranean, to Sicily and even Athens. Around this time the universities of Palencia (1212/1263) and Salamanca (1218/1254) were established. The Black Death of 1348 and 1349 devastated Spain.

In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. 1478 commenced the completion of the conquest of the Canary Islands and in 1492, the combined forces of Castile and Aragon captured the Emirate of Granada, ending the last remnant of a 781-year presence of Islamic rule in Iberia. The Treaty of Granada guaranteed religious tolerance toward Muslims. The year 1492 also marked the arrival in the New World of Christopher Columbus, during a voyage funded by Isabella. That same year, Spain's Jews were ordered to convert to Catholicism or face expulsion from Spanish territories during the Spanish Inquisition. A few years later, following social disturbances, Muslims were also expelled under the same conditions.

As Renaissance New Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand centralized royal power at the expense of local nobility, and the word ''España'', whose root is the ancient name ''Hispania'', began to be commonly used to designate the whole of the two kingdoms. With their wide-ranging political, legal, religious and military reforms, Spain emerged as the first world power.

Imperial Spain [link]

The unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile laid the basis for modern Spain and the Spanish Empire. Spain was Europe's leading power throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions. It reached its apogee during the reigns of the first two Spanish Habsburgs – Charles I (1516–1556) and Philip II (1556–1598). This period saw the Italian Wars, the revolt of the comuneros, the Dutch revolt, the Morisco revolt, clashes with the Ottomans, the Anglo-Spanish war and wars with France.

The Spanish Empire expanded to include great parts of the Americas, islands in the Asia-Pacific area, areas of Italy, cities in Northern Africa, as well as parts of what are now France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire of which it was said that the sun never set.

This was an age of discovery, with daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening-up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginnings of European colonialism. Along with the arrival of precious metals, spices, luxuries, and new agricultural plants, Spanish explorers brought back knowledge from the New World, and played a leading part in transforming the European understanding of the globe. The cultural efflorescence witnessed is now referred to as the Spanish Golden Age. The rise of humanism, the Protestant Reformation and new geographical discoveries raised issues addressed by the influential intellectual movement now known as the School of Salamanca.

In the late 16th century and first half of the 17th century, Spain was confronted by unrelenting challenges from all sides. Barbary pirates under the aegis of the rapidly growing Ottoman empire, disrupted life in many coastal areas through their slave raids and renewed the threat of an Islamic invasion. This at a time when Spain was often at war with France.

The Protestant Reformation schism from the Catholic Church dragged the kingdom ever more deeply into the mire of religiously charged wars. The result was a country forced into ever expanding military efforts across Europe and in the Mediterranean.

By the middle decades of a war- and plague-ridden 17th century Europe the Spanish Habsburgs had enmeshed the country in the continent-wide religious-political conflicts. These conflicts drained it of resources and undermined the European economy generally. Spain managed to hold on to most of the scattered Habsburg empire, and help the imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire reverse a large part of the advances made by Protestant forces, but it was finally forced to recognise the separation of Portugal (with whom it had been united in a personal union of the crowns from 1580 to 1640) and the Netherlands, and eventually suffered some serious military reverses to France in the latter stages of the immensely destructive, Europe-wide Thirty Years War.

In the latter half of the 17th century, Spain went into a gradual relative decline, during which it surrendered a number of small territories to France. However it maintained and enlarged its vast overseas empire, which remained intact until the beginning of the 19th century.

The decline culminated in a controversy over succession to the throne which consumed the first years of the 18th century. The War of Spanish Succession was a wide ranging international conflict combined with a civil war, and was to cost the kingdom its European possessions and its position as one of the leading powers on the Continent.

During this war, a new dynasty originating in France, the Bourbons, was installed. Long united only by the Crown, a true Spanish state was established when the first Bourbon king, Philip V, united the crowns of Castile and Aragon into a single state, abolishing many of the old regional privileges and laws.

The 18th century saw a gradual recovery and an increase in prosperity through much of the empire. The new Bourbon monarchy drew on the French system of modernising the administration and the economy. Enlightenment ideas began to gain ground among some of the kingdom's elite and monarchy. Military assistance for the rebellious British colonies in the American War of Independence improved the kingdom's international standing.

Napoleonic rule and its consequences [link]

In 1793, Spain went to war against the new French Republic, which had overthrown and executed its Bourbon king, Louis XVI. The war polarised the country in an apparent reaction against the gallicised elites. Defeated in the field, peace was made with France in 1795 and it effectively became a client state of that country; In 1807, the secret treaty of Fontainebleau between Napoleon and the deeply unpopular Godoy led to a declaration of war against Britain and Portugal. French troops entered the kingdom unopposed, supposedly to invade Portugal, but instead they occupied Spanish fortresses. This invasion by trickery led to the abdication of the ridiculed Spanish king in favour of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

This foreign puppet monarch was widely regarded with scorn. The 2 May 1808 revolt was one of many nationalist uprisings against the Bonapartist regime across the country. These revolts marked the beginning of what is known to the Spanish as the War of Independence, and to the British as the Peninsular War. Napoleon was forced to intervene personally, defeating several badly coordinated Spanish armies and forcing a British army to retreat. However, further military action by Spanish guerrillas and armies, and Wellington's British-Portuguese forces, combined with Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, led to the ousting of the French imperial armies from the Spain in 1814, and the return of King Ferdinand VII.

The French invasions devastated the economy, and left Spain a deeply divided country prone to political instability. The power struggles of the early 19th century led to the loss of all of its colonies in the Americas (which stretched from Las Californias to Patagonia), with the sole exception of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Spanish–American War (1898)[link]

Amid the instability and economic crisis that afflicted Spain in the 19th century there arose nationalist movements in the Philippines and Cuba. Wars of independence ensued in those colonies and eventually the United States became involved. Despite the commitment and ability shown by some military units, they were so mismanaged by the highest levels of command that the Spanish–American War, fought in the Spring of 1898, did not last long. "El Desastre" (The Disaster), as the war became known, helped give impetus to the Generation of 98 who were already conducting much critical analysis concerning the country. It also weakened the stability that had been established during Alfonso XII's reign.

Spanish Civil War (1936–39)[link]

The 20th century brought little peace; Spain played a minor part in the scramble for Africa, with the colonisation of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea. The heavy losses suffered during the Rif war in Morocco helped to undermine the monarchy. A period of authoritarian rule under General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923–1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia and gave voting rights to women. The Spanish Civil War (1936–39) ensued. Three years later the rebel Nationalist forces, led by General Francisco Franco, emerged victorious with the support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Republican side was supported by the Soviet Union, Mexico and International Brigades, including the American Abraham Lincoln Brigade, but it was not supported officially by the Western powers due to the British-led policy of Non-Intervention.

The Civil War claimed the lives of over 500,000 people and caused the flight of up to a half-million citizens. Most of their descendants now live in Latin American countries, with some 300,000 in Argentina alone. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War.

Spain under Franco (1939-75)[link]

The Spanish State established by Franco was nominally neutral in the Second World War, although sympathetic to the Axis. The only legal party under Franco's post civil war regime was the ''Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS'', formed in 1937; the party emphasised anti-Communism, Catholicism and nationalism. Given Franco's opposition to competing political parties, the party was renamed the National Movement (''Movimiento Nacional'') in 1949.

After World War II Spain was politically and economically isolated, and was kept out of the United Nations. This changed in 1955, during the Cold War period, when it became strategically important for the U.S. to establish a military presence on the Iberian peninsula as a counter to any possible move by the Soviet Union into the Mediterranean basin. In the 1960s, Spain registered an unprecedented rate of economic growth in what became known as the Spanish miracle, which resumed the much interrupted transition towards a modern economy.

Post Franco (1975-)[link]

With Franco's death in November 1975, Juan Carlos succeeded to the position of King of Spain and head of state in accordance with the law. With the approval of the new Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the restoration of democracy, the State devolved much authority to the regions and created an internal organization based on autonomous communities.

In the Basque Country, moderate Basque nationalism has coexisted with a radical nationalist movement led by the armed organisation ETA. The group was formed in 1959 during Franco's rule but has continued to wage its violent campaign even after the restoration of democracy and the return of a large measure of regional autonomy.

On 23 February 1981, rebel elements among the security forces seized the Cortes in an attempt to impose a military backed government. King Juan Carlos took personal command of the military and successfully ordered the coup plotters, via national television, to surrender.

On 30 May 1982 Spain joined NATO, following a referendum. That year the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) came to power, the first left-wing government in 43 years. In 1986 Spain joined the European Community; what became the European Union. The PSOE was replaced in government by the Partido Popular (PP) after the latter won the 1996 General Elections; at that point the PSOE had served almost 14 consecutive years in office.

On 1 January 2002, Spain ceased to use the peseta as currency replacing it with the euro, which it shares with 15 other countries in the Eurozone. Spain has also seen strong economic growth, well above the EU average; however, well publicised concerns issued by many economic commentators at the height of the boom that the extraordinary property prices and high foreign trade deficits of the boom were likely to lead to a painful economic collapse were confirmed by a severe property-led recession that struck the country in 2008/9.

A series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain on 11 March 2004. After a five month trial in 2007 it was concluded the bombings were perpetrated by a local Islamist militant group inspired by al-Qaeda. The bombings killed 191 people and wounded more than 1800, and the intention of the perpetrators may have been to influence the outcome of the Spanish general election, held three days later.

Though initial suspicions focused on the Basque group ETA, evidence soon emerged indicating possible Islamist involvement. Because of the proximity of the election, the issue of responsibility quickly became a political controversy, with the main competing parties PP and PSOE exchanging accusations over the handling of the aftermath. At 14 March elections, PSOE, led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, obtained a plurality, enough to form a new cabinet with Rodríguez Zapatero as the new ''Presidente del Gobierno'' or Prime Minister of Spain, thus succeeding the former PP administration.

The bursting of the Spanish property bubble in 2008 led to the 2008–2012 Spanish financial crisis.

Geography [link]

At , Spain is the world's 51st-largest country. It is some smaller than France and larger than the U.S. state of California. Mt. Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands) has the highest mountain peak of Spain and the third largest volcano in the world from its base.

Spain lies between latitudes 26° and 44° N, and longitudes 19° W and 5° E.

On the west, Spain borders Portugal; on the south, it borders Gibraltar (a British overseas territory) and Morocco, through its exclaves in North Africa (Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera). On the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. Along the Pyrenees in Gerona, a small exclave town called Llívia is surrounded by France.

Islands [link]

Spain also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the Strait of Gibraltar, known as , such as the Chafarine islands, the isle of Alborán, Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla Perejil. The little Pheasant Island in the River Bidasoa is a Spanish-French condominium.

Islander population: {| |- style="vertical-align: top;" |

1. Tenerife 899,833

2. Mallorca 862,397

3. Gran Canaria 838,397

4. Lanzarote 141,938

5. Ibiza 125,053

6. Fuerteventura 103,107

7. Menorca 92,434

8. La Palma 85,933

9. La Gomera 22,259

10. El Hierro 10,558

11. Formentera 7,957

12. Arosa 4,889

13. La Graciosa 658

14. Tabarca 105

15. Ons 61

|}

Mountains and rivers [link]

Mainland Spain is a mountainous country, dominated by high plateaus and mountain chains. After the Pyrenees, the main mountain ranges are the Cordillera Cantábrica, Sistema Ibérico, Sistema Central, Montes de Toledo, Sierra Morena and the Sistema Penibético whose highest peak, the 3,478 m high Mulhacén, located in Sierra Nevada, is the highest elevation in the Iberian peninsula, while the highest point in Spain is the Teide, a 3,718 m high active volcano in the Canary Islands. The Meseta Central is a vast plateau in the heart of peninsular Spain.

There are several major rivers in Spain such as the Tagus, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia.

Climate [link]

Three main climatic zones can be separated, according to geographical situation and orographic conditions:

The Mediterranean climate, characterized by dry and warm summers. According to the Köppen climate classification, it is dominant in the peninsula, with two varieties: ''Csa'' and ''Csb''.

The semiarid climate (''Bsh'', ''Bsk''), located in the southeastern quarter of the country, especially in the region of Murcia and in the Ebro valley. In contrast with the Mediterranean climate, the dry season extends beyond the summer.

The oceanic climate (''Cfb''), located in north quarter of the country, especially in the region of Basque Country, Asturias, Cantabria and partly Galicia. In contrary to the Mediterranean climate, winter and summer temperatures are influenced by the ocean, and have no seasonal drought.

Apart from these main types, other sub-types can be found, like the alpine climate in the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada, and a typical subtropical climate in the Canary Islands.

Governance [link]

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 is the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The constitutional history of Spain dates back to the constitution of 1812. Impatient with the pace of democratic political reforms in 1976 and 1977, Spain's new King Juan Carlos, known for his formidable personality, dismissed Carlos Arias Navarro and appointed the reformer Adolfo Suárez as Prime Minister. The resulting general election in 1977 convened the ''Constituent Cortes'' (the Spanish Parliament, in its capacity as a constitutional assembly) for the purpose of drafting and approving the constitution of 1978. After a national referendum on 6 December 1978, 88% of voters approved of the new constitution.

As a result, Spain is now composed of 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities with varying degrees of autonomy thanks to its Constitution, which nevertheless explicitly states the indivisible unity of the Spanish nation. The constitution also specifies that Spain has no state religion and that all are free to practice and believe as they wish.

As of November 2009, the government of Spain keeps a balanced gender equality ratio. Nine out of the 18 members of the government are women. Under the administration of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain has been described as being "at the vanguard" in gender equality issues and also that "[n]o other modern, democratic, administration outside Scandinavia has taken more steps to place gender issues at the centre of government". The Spanish administration has also promoted gender-based positive discrimination by approving gender equality legislation in 2007 aimed at providing equality between genders in Spanish political and economic life (Gender Equality Act). However, in the legislative branch, as of July 2010 only 128 of the 350 members of the Congress are women (36.3%). It places Spain 13th on a list of countries ranked by proportion of women in the lower house. In the Senate, the ratio is even lower, since there are only 79 women out of 263 (30.0%). The Gender Empowerment Measure of Spain in the United Nations Human Development Report is 0.794, 12th in the world.

Branches of government [link]

Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the ''Cortes Generales''. The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers of Spain presided over by the Prime Minister, nominated and appointed by the monarch and confirmed by the Congress of Deputies following legislative elections. By political custom established by King Juan Carlos since the ratification of the 1978 Constitution, the king's nominees have all been from parties who maintain a plurality of seats in the Congress.

The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (''Congreso de los Diputados'') with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate (''Senado'') with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms.

Head of State

* King Juan Carlos I, since 22 November 1975

Head of Government

* Prime Minister of Spain (Spanish ''Presidente del Gobierno'' literally ''President of the Government''): Mariano Rajoy Brey, elected 20 November 2011.

** Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Presidency: Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.

Cabinet

* Council of Ministers (Spanish ''Consejo de Ministros'') designated by the Prime Minister.

Spain is organizationally structured as a so-called ''Estado de las Autonomías'' ("State of Autonomies"); it is one of the most decentralized countries in Europe, along with Switzerland, Germany and Belgium; for example, all Autonomous Communities have their own elected parliaments, governments, public administrations, budgets, and resources. Health and education systems among others are managed regionally, and in addition, the Basque Country and Navarre also manage their own public finances based on foral provisions. In Catalonia and the Basque Country, a full fledged autonomous police corps replaces some of the State police functions (see Mossos d'Esquadra, Ertzaintza, Policía Foral and Policía Canaria).

Administrative divisions [link]

The Spanish State is integrated by 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities, both groups being the highest or first-order administrative division in the country. Autonomous communities are integrated by provinces, of which there are 50 in total, and in turn, provinces are integrated by municipalities. In Catalonia, two additional divisions exist, the ''comarques'' (sing. ''comarca'') and the ''vegueries'' (sing. ''vegueria'') both of which have administrative powers; ''comarques'' being aggregations of municipalities, and the ''vegueries'' being aggregations of ''comarques''. The concept of a ''comarca'' exists in all autonomous communities, however, unlike Catalonia, these are merely historical or geographical subdivisions.

Autonomous communities and autonomous cities [link]

Autonomous communities are the first level administrative division in the country. These were created after the 1979 and current constitution came into effect in recognition of the right to self-government to the "nationalities and regions of Spain". Autonomous communities were to be integrated by adjacent provinces with common historial, cultural, and economical traits. This territorial organization, based on devolution, is known in Spain as the "State of Autonomies".

The basic institutional law of each autonomous community is the Statute of Autonomy. The Statutes of Autonomy establish the name of the community according to its historical identity, the limits of their territories, the name and organization of the institutions of government and the rights they enjoy according the constitution.

The government of all autonomous communities must be based on a division of powers comprising:

a Legislative Assembly whose members must be elected by universal suffrage according to the system of proportional representation and in which all areas that integrate the territory are fairly represented;

a Government Council, with executive and administrative functions headed by a president, elected by the Legislative Assembly and nominated by the King of Spain;

a Supreme Court of Justice, under the Supreme Court of the State, which head the judicial organization within the autonomous community.

Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, which identified themselves as "nationalities" were granted self-government through a rapid process. Andalusia also took that denomination in its first Statute of Autonomy, even though it followed the longer process stipulated in the constitution for the rest of the country. Progressively, other communities in revisions to their Statutes of Autonomy have also taken that denomination in accordance to their historical regional identity, such as the Valencian Community, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, and Aragon.

The autonomous communities have wide legislative and executive autonomy, with their own parliaments and regional governments. The distribution of powers may be different for every community, as laid out in their Statutes of Autonomy, since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical. Only two communities—the Basque Country and Navarre—have full fiscal autonomy. Aside of fiscal autonomy, the "historical" nationalities—Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia—were devolved more powers than the rest of the communities, amongst them the ability of the regional president to dissolve the parliament and call for elections at any time. In addition, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Navarre have police corps of their own: Ertzaintza, Mossos d'Esquadra and the Policía Foral respectively. Other communities have more limited forces or none at all, like the ''Policía Autónoma Andaluza'' in Andalusia or the BESCAM in Madrid.

Nonetheless, recent amendments to existing Statutes of Autonomy or the promulgation of new Statutes altogether, have reduced the asymmetry between the powers originally granted to the "historical nationalities" and the rest of the regions.

Finally, along with the 17 autonomous communities, two autonomous cities are also part of the State of Autonomies and are first-order territorial divisions: Ceuta and Melilla. These are two exclaves located in the northern African coast.

Provinces and municipalities [link]

Autonomous communities are subdivided into provinces (''provincias''), which served as their territorial building blocks. In turn, provinces are integrated by municipalities (''municipios''). The existence of both the provinces and the municipalities is guaranteed and protected by the constitution, not necessarily by the Statutes of Autonomy themselves. Municipalities are granted autonomy to manage their internal affairs, and provinces are the territorial divisions designed to carry out the activities of the State.

The current provincial division structure is based—with minor changes—on the 1833 territorial division by Javier de Burgos, and in all, the Spanish territory is divided into 50 provinces. The communities of Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, the Balearic Islands, Madrid, Murcia and Navarre are the only communities that are integrated by a single province, which is coextensive with the community itself. In this cases, the administrative institutions of the province are replaced by the governmental institutions of the community.

Foreign relations [link]

After the return of democracy following the death of Franco in 1975, Spain's foreign policy priorities were to break out of the diplomatic isolation of the Franco years and expand diplomatic relations, enter the European Community, and define security relations with the West.

As a member of NATO since 1982, Spain has established itself as a participant in multilateral international security activities. Spain's EU membership represents an important part of its foreign policy. Even on many international issues beyond western Europe, Spain prefers to coordinate its efforts with its EU partners through the European political cooperation mechanisms.

Spain has maintained its special identification with Latin America. Its policy emphasizes the concept of an Iberoamerican community, essentially the renewal of the historically liberal concept of ''hispanoamericanismo'', or Hispanism as it is often referred to in English, which has sought to link the Iberian peninsula with Latin America through language, commerce, history and culture.

Territorial disputes [link]

Spain claims Gibraltar, a six square km Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom in the southernmost part of the Iberian Peninsula. Then a Spanish town, it was conquered by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession on behalf of Archduke Charles, pretender to the Spanish throne.

The legal situation concerning Gibraltar was settled in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht, in which Spain ceded the territory in perpetuity to the British Crown stating that, should the British abandon this post, it would be offered to Spain first. Since the 1940s Spain has called for the return of Gibraltar. The overwhelming majority of Gibraltarians strongly oppose this, along with any proposal of shared sovereignty. UN resolutions call on the United Kingdom and Spain, both EU members, to reach an agreement over the status of Gibraltar.

However, the Spanish claim makes a distinction between the isthmus that connects the Rock to the Spanish mainland on the one hand, and the Rock and city of Gibraltar on the other. While the Rock and city were ceded by the Treaty of Utrecht, Spain asserts that the "occupation of the isthmus is illegal and against the principles of International Law". The United Kingdom relies on ''de facto'' arguments of possession by prescription in relation to the isthmus, as there has been "continuous possession [of the isthmus] over a long period".

Another claim by Spain is about the Savage Islands, not recognized by Portugal.

Spain claims the sovereignty over the Perejil Island, a small, uninhabited rocky islet located in the South shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. The island lies 250 meters just off the coast of Morocco, 8 km from Ceuta and 13.5 km from mainland Spain. Its sovereignty is disputed between Spain and Morocco. It was the subject of an armed incident between the two countries in 2002. The incident ended when both countries agreed to return to the status quo ante which existed prior to the Moroccan occupation of the island. The islet is now deserted and without any sign of sovereignty.

Besides the Perejil Island, the Spanish-held territories claimed by other countries are two: Morocco claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the ''plazas de soberanía'' islets off the northern coast of Africa; and Portugal does not recognise Spain's sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza.

Military [link]

The armed forces of Spain are known as the Spanish Armed Forces (). Their Commander-in-chief is the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I.

The Spanish Armed Forces are divided into three branches:

Army (''Ejército de Tierra'')

Navy (''Armada'')

Air Force (''Ejército del Aire'')

Economy [link]

Spain's capitalist mixed economy is the twelfth largest worldwide and the fifth largest in the European Union, as well as the Eurozone's fourth largest.

The centre-right government of former prime minister José María Aznar worked successfully to gain admission to the group of countries launching the euro in 1999. Unemployment stood at 7.6% in October 2006, a rate that compared favorably to many other European countries, and especially with the early 1990s when it stood at over 20%. Perennial weak points of Spain's economy include high inflation, a large underground economy, and an education system which OECD reports place among the poorest for developed countries, together with the United States and UK.

However, the Spanish property bubble that begun building from 1997, fed by historically low interest rates and an immense surge in immigration, imploded in 2008, leading to a rapidly weakening economy and soaring unemployment. By the end of May 2009, unemployment reached 18.7% (37% for youths).

Before the current crisis, the Spanish economy was credited for having avoided the virtual zero growth rate of some of its largest partners in the EU. In fact, the country's economy created more than half of all the new jobs in the European Union over the five years ending 2005, a process that is rapidly being reversed. The Spanish economy has been until recently regarded as one of the most dynamic within the EU, attracting significant amounts of foreign investment.

The most recent economic growth benefited greatly from the global real estate boom, with construction representing an astonishing 16% of GDP and 12% of employment in its final year.

According to calculations by the German newspaper ''Die Welt'' in 2007, Spain was on course to overtake Germany in per capita income by 2011. But the collapse of the housing boom in 2008 brought this to an end. According to the IMF, the PPP GDP per capita of Spain had, by 2010, slipped to USD 29,830; this compared to Germany at 36,081, UK 35,059, France 33,910, Italy 29,480, Greece 28,496, and Portugal 23,262.

Research about quality of life by the Economist Intelligence Unit's quality of life survey placed Spain as the country among the top 10 best quality of life in the world for 2005, ahead of other economically and technologically advanced countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom and South Korea.

Before the collapse of the real estate boom there had been a corresponding rise in the levels of personal debt as prospective home owners struggled to meet asking prices. The average level of household debt tripled in less than a decade. This placed great pressure upon lower to middle income groups; by 2005 the median ratio of indebtedness to income had grown to 125%, due primarily to expensive boom time mortgages.

The 2008/2009 credit crunch and world recession manifested itself in Spain through a massive downturn in the property sector. Fortunately, Spain's banks and financial services avoided the more severe problems of their counterparts in the USA and UK, due mainly to a stringently enforced conservative financial regulatory regime. The Spanish financial authorities had not forgotten the country's own banking crisis of 1979 and an earlier real-estate-precipitated banking crisis of 1993. Indeed, Spain's largest bank, Banco Santander, participated in the UK government's bail-out of part of the UK banking sector.

A European Commission forecast predicted Spain would enter a recession by the end of 2008. According to Spain’s Finance Minister, “Spain faces its deepest recession in half a century”. Spain's government forecast the unemployment rate would rise to 16% in 2009. The ESADE business school predicted 20%. In 2012, it had already risen to an astonishing 23.3%.

Tourism [link]

During the last four decades the Spanish tourism industry has grown to become the second biggest in the world, worth approximately 40 billion Euros, about 5% of GDP, in 2006. Today, the climate of Spain, historical and cultural monuments and its geographic position together with its facilities make tourism one of Spain's main national industries and a large source of stable employment and development. The Spanish hotel star rating system has requirements much more demanding than other European countries, so at a given rating Spanish accommodations worth higher.

Energy [link]

Spain is one of the world's leading countries in the development and production of renewable energy. In 2010 Spain became the solar power world leader when it overtook the United States with a massive power station plant called La Florida, near Alvarado, Badajoz. Spain is also Europe's main producer of wind energy. In 2010 its wind turbines generated 42,976 GWh, which accounted for 16.4% of all the energy produced in Spain. On November 9, 2010, wind energy reached an instantaneous historic peak covering 53% of mainland electricity demand and generating an amount of energy that is equivalent to that of 14 nuclear reactors. Other renewable energies used in Spain are hydroelectric, biomass and marine (2 power plants under construction).

Non-renewable energy sources used in Spain are nuclear (8 operative reactors), gas, coal, and oil.

Transport [link]

The Spanish road system is mainly centralized, with six highways connecting Madrid to the Basque Country, Catalonia, Valencia, West Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia. Additionally, there are highways along the Atlantic (Ferrol to Vigo), Cantabrian (Oviedo to San Sebastián) and Mediterranean (Girona to Cádiz) coasts.

Spain has the most extensive high-speed rail network in Europe, and the second most extensive in the world after China. As of October 2010 Spain has a total of of high speed tracks linking Málaga, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Valladolid, with the trains reaching speeds up to 300 km/h (187 mph). On average, the Spanish high-speed train is the fastest one in the world followed by the Japanese bullet train and the French TGV. Regarding punctuality, it is the second one in the world (98.54% on-time arrival) after the Japanese Shinkansen (99%). Should the aims of the ambitious AVE program (Spanish high speed trains) be met, by 2020 Spain will have 7000 km (4300 mi) of high-speed trains linking almost all provincial cities to Madrid in less than 3 hours and Barcelona within 4 hours.

There are 47 public airports in Spain. The busiest one is the airport of Madrid (Barajas), with 50 million passengers in 2011, being the world's 15th busiest airport, as well as the European Union's fourth busiest. The airport of Barcelona (El Prat) is also important, with 35 million passengers in 2011, being the world's 31th busiest airport. Other main airports are located in Majorca (23 million passengers), Málaga (13 million passengers), Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) (11 million passengers), Alicante (10 million passengers) and smaller, with the number of passengers between 4 and 10 million, for example Tenerife (two airports), Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura. Also, more than 30 airports with the number of passengers below 4 million.

Spain aims to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2014 as part of the government's plan to save energy and boost energy efficiency. The Minister of Industry Miguel Sebastian said that "the electric vehicle is the future and the engine of an industrial revolution."

Demographics [link]

In 2008 the population of Spain officially reached 46 million people, as recorded by the ''Padrón municipal''. Spain's population density, at 91/km² (235/sq mi), is lower than that of most Western European countries and its distribution across the country is very unequal. With the exception of the region surrounding the capital, Madrid, the most populated areas lie around the coast. The population of Spain more than doubled since 1900, when it stood at 18.6 million, principally due to the spectacular demographic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Native Spaniards make up 88% of the total population of Spain. After the birth rate plunged in the 1980s and Spain's population growth rate dropped, the population again trended upward, based initially on the return of many Spaniards who had emigrated to other European countries during the 1970s, and more recently, fuelled by large numbers of immigrants who make up 12% of the population. The immigrants originate mainly in Latin America (39%), North Africa (16%), Eastern Europe (15%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (4%). In 2005, Spain instituted a three-month amnesty program through which certain hitherto undocumented aliens were granted legal residency.

In 2008, Spain granted citizenship to 84,170 persons, mostly to people from Ecuador, Colombia and Morocco. A sizeable portion of foreign residents in Spain also comes from other Western and Central European countries. These are mostly British, French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian. They reside primarily on the Mediterranean coast and the Balearic islands, where many choose to live their retirement or telecommute.

Substantial populations descended from Spanish colonists and immigrants exist in other parts of the world, most notably in Latin America. Beginning in the late 15th century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America and at present most white Latin Americans (who make up about one-third of Latin America's population) are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. In the 16th century perhaps 240,000 Spaniards emigrated, mostly to Peru and Mexico. They were joined by 450,000 in the next century. Between 1846 and 1932 it is estimated that nearly 5 million Spaniards emigrated to the Americas, especially to Argentina and Brazil. Approximately two million Spaniards migrated to other Western European countries between 1960 to 1975. During the same period perhaps 300,000 went to Latin America.

Urbanization [link]

Source: ESPON, 2007 !Pos.MadridBarcelonaValencia, SpainSevilleBilbaoMálagaOviedo–GijónAlicante–ElcheLas Palmas de Gran CanariaZaragoza

|	City	Region	Province	Population
1	|	Community of Madrid	Madrid	6,501,717
2	|	Catalonia	Barcelona	5,511,147
3	Valencia ||	Valencian Community	Valencia	2,575,362
4	|	Andalusia	Seville	1,927,109
5	|	Basque Country (autonomous community)>Basque Country	Biscay	1.152.658
6	|	Andalusia	Málaga	1,624,145
7	|	Asturias	Asturias	844,000
8	|	Valencian Community	Alicante	793,000
9	Las Palmas de G.C. ||	Canary Islands>Canarias	Las Palmas	750,000
10	|	Aragon	Zaragoza	730,000

!Pos.MadridBarcelonaValencia, SpainSevilleZaragozaMálagaMurciaPalma de MallorcaLas Palmas de Gran CanariaBilbao

|	City	Region	Province	Population
1	|	Community of Madrid	Madrid	3,213,271
2	|	Catalonia	Barcelona	1,615,908
3	Valencia ||	Valencian Community	Valencia	810,064
4	|	Andalusia	Seville	703.206
5	|	Aragon	Zaragoza	699.240
6	|	Andalusia	Málaga	566,447
7	|	Región of Murcia>Murcia	Murcia	430,571
8	|	Balearic Islands	Balearic Islands	401,570
9	Las Palmas de G.C. ||	Canary Islands	Las Palmas	381,723
10	|	Basque Country (autonomous community)>Basque Country	Biscay	353,340

Peoples [link]

The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognises historic entities ("nationalities", a carefully chosen word in order to avoid the more politically charged "nations") and regions, within the context of the Spanish nation. For some people, Spain's identity consists more of an overlap of different regional identities than of a sole Spanish identity. Indeed, some of the regional identities may even conflict with the Spanish one. Distinct traditional regional identities within Spain include the Basques, Catalans, Galicians and Castilians, among others.

It is this last feature of "shared identity" between the more local level or Autonomous Community and the Spanish level which makes the identity question in Spain complex and far from univocal.

Minority groups [link]

Spain has a number of descendants of populations from former colonies (especially Equatorial Guinea) and immigrants from several Sub-Saharan and Caribbean countries have been recently settling in Spain. There are also sizeable numbers of Asian immigrants, most of whom are of Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Middle Eastern and South Asian origins; the population of Latin Americans is sizable as well and a fast growing segment. Other growing groups are Britons, 760,000 in 2006, Germans and other immigrants from the rest of Europe.

The arrival of the ''Gitanos'', a Romani people, began in the 16th century; estimates of the Spanish Gitano population fluctuate around 700,000. The ''Mercheros'' (also Quinquis) are a minority group, formerly nomadic, that share a lot of the way of life of Gitanos. Their origin is unclear.

Immigration [link]

According to the Spanish government there were 5.7 million foreign residents in Spain in 2011, or 12.2% of the total population. According to residence permit data for 2011, more than 860,000 were Romanian, about 770,000 were Moroccan, approximately 390,000 were British, and 360.000 were Ecuadorian. Other sizeable foreign communities are Colombian, Bolivian, German, Italian, Bulgarian, and Chinese. There are more than 200,000 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa living in Spain, principally Senegaleses and Nigerians. Since 2000, Spain has experienced high population growth as a result of immigration flows, despite a birth rate that is only half the replacement level. This sudden and ongoing inflow of immigrants, particularly those arriving clandestinely by sea, has caused noticeable social tension.

Within the EU, Spain had the second highest immigration rate in percentage terms after Cyprus, but by a great margin, the highest in absolute numbers, up to 2008. The number of immigrants in Spain had grown up from 500,000 people in 1996 to 5.2 million in 2008 out of a total population of 46 million. In 2005 alone, a regularisation programme increased the legal immigrant population by 700,000 people. There are a number of reasons for the high level of immigration, including Spain's cultural ties with Latin America, its geographical position, the porosity of its borders, the large size of its underground economy and the strength of the agricultural and construction sectors, which demand more low cost labour than can be offered by the national workforce.

Another statistically significant factor is the large number of residents of EU origin typically retiring to Spain's Mediterranean coast. In fact, Spain was Europe's largest absorber of migrants from 2002 to 2007, with its immigrant population more than doubling as 2.5 million people arrived. According to the Financial Times, Spain is the most favoured destination for West Europeans considering a move from their own country and seeking jobs elsewhere in the EU.

In 2008, the government instituted a ''Plan of Voluntary Return'' which encouraged unemployed immigrants from outside the EU to return to their home countries and receive several incentives, including the right to keep their unemployment benefits and transfer whatever they contributed to the Spanish Social Security. The program had little effect; during its first two months, just 1,400 immigrants took up the offer. What the program failed to do, the sharp and prolonged economic crisis has done from 2010 to 2011 in that tens of thousands of immigrants have left the country due to lack of jobs. In 2011 alone, more than half a million people have left Spain. For the first time in decades the net migration rate is expected to be negative, and 9 out 10 emigrants are foreigners.

Languages [link]

[[File:Languages of Spain.svg|thumb|right|250px|The languages of Spain (simplified) {| style="width:100%; background:none;" | align=top | | align=top | |}]] Spain is openly multilingual, and the constitution establishes that the nation will protect "all Spaniards and the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions.

Spanish (''español'') — officially recognized in the constitution as Castilian (''castellano'') — is the official language of the entire country, and it is the right and duty of every Spaniard to know the language. The constitution also establishes that "all other Spanish languages" — that is, all other languages of Spain — will also be official in their respective autonomous communities in accordance to their Statutes, their organic regional legislations, and that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection."

The other official languages of Spain, co-official with Spanish are:

Basque (''euskera'') in the Basque Country and Navarre;

Catalan (''català'') in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and in the Valencian Community, where its distinct modality of the language is officially known as Valencian (''valencià''); and

Galician (''galego'') in Galicia

As a percentage of the general population, Basque is spoken by 2%, Catalan (or Valencian) by 17%, and Galician by 7% of all Spaniards.

In Catalonia, Aranese, a local variety of the Occitan language has been declared co-official along with Catalan and Spanish since 2006. It is spoken only in the ''comarca'' of ''Val d'Aran'' by roughly 6,700 people. Other Romance minority languages, though not official, have special recognition, such as the Astur-Leonese group (Asturian, also called "''Bable''"in Asturias and Leonese in Castile and León) and Aragonese in Aragon.

In the North African Spanish autonomous city of Melilla, Riff Berber is spoken by a significant part of the population. In the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast and the islands, English and German are widely spoken by tourists, foreign residents, and tourism workers.

Education [link]

State education in Spain is free and compulsory from the age of 6 to 16. The current education system was established by an educational law of 2006, Ley Orgánica de Educación, or Fundamental Law of Education.

Religion [link]

{{bar box |title=Religions in Spain |titlebar=#ddd |float=right |bars= |caption=Numbers from the following source: }} Roman Catholicism has long been the main religion of Spain, and although it no longer has official status by law, in all public schools in Spain students have to choose either religion or ethics and Catholic is the only religion officially taught. According to a April 2012 study by the Spanish Center of Sociological Research about 71% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, 2.7% other faith, and about 24% identify with no religion among which 9.4% are atheists. Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious services. This same study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 59% hardly ever or never go to church, 15% go to church some times a year, 8% some time per month and 14% every Sunday or multiple times per week.

But according to a December 2006 study, 48% of the population declared a belief in a supreme being, while 41% described themselves as atheist or agnostic. Altogether, about 22% of the entire Spanish population attends religious services at least once per month. Though Spanish society has become considerably more secular in recent decades, the influx of Latin American immigrants, who tend to be strong Catholic practitioners, has helped the Catholic Church to recover.

Protestant churches have about 1,200,000 members. There are about 105,000 Jehovah's Witnesses. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has approximately 46,000 adherents in 133 congregations in all regions of the country and has a temple in the Moratalaz District of Madrid.

The recent waves of immigration have also led to an increasing number of Muslims, who number approximately one million in Spain. Presently, Islam is the second largest religion in Spain, accounting for approximately 2.3% of the total population. After their expulsion in 1492, Muslims did not live in Spain for centuries. Late 19th-century colonial expansion in northwestern Africa gave a number of residents in Spanish Morocco and Western Sahara full citizenship. Their ranks have since been bolstered by recent immigration, especially from Morocco and Algeria.

Judaism was practically non-existent in Spain from the 1492 expulsion until the 19th century, when Jews were again permitted to enter the country. Currently there are around 62,000 Jews in Spain, or 0.14% of the total population. Most are arrivals in the past century, while some are descendants of earlier Spanish Jews. Approximately 80,000 Jews are thought to have lived in Spain on the eve of the Spanish Inquisition.

Culture [link]

Culturally, Spain is a Western country. Because of the great strength of its Roman heritage in almost every aspect of Spanish life, Spain is often described as a Latin country. Nevertheless, there have been many influences on many aspects of Spanish life, from art and architecture to cuisine and music, from many countries across Europe and from around the Mediterranean, through its long history.

The number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Spain, 40, is exceeded only by the number in Italy.

Literature [link]

Due to historic, geographic and generational diversity, Spanish literature has known a great number of influences and it is very diverse. Some major literary movements can be identified within it.

Miguel de Cervantes is probably Spain's most famous author and his Don Quixote is considered the most emblematic work in the canon of Spanish literature and a founding classic of Western literature.

Language institutions [link]

The Royal Spanish Academy (''Real Academia Española'' or ''RAE'', in Spanish) is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, but is affiliated with national language academies in 21 Spanish-speaking nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies. Its emblem is a fiery crucible, and its motto is ''Limpia, fija y da esplendor'' ("It cleans, sets, and gives splendor").

With the same policy, the Royal Galician Academy (''Real Academia Galega'' or ''RAG'', in Galician) was created in 1906 in A Coruña with the help of Havana emigrated Galicians. Its work is based in a Lexicography (the main results are the official and standard ''Dicionario da Real Academia'' and the ''Vocabulario ortográfico da lingua galega''), Terminology (through Termigal since 1997), Sociolinguistics, Onomastics and Grammar approaches from the Linguistics point of view, and another two sections for History and Literature. The Academy works closely with the government as an advice institution, and its resolutions are almost binding about language standard. It had though recently demonstrated criticism about the developement of the Galician language policy by the Government. The Institute of Catalan Studies (''Institut d'Estudis Catalans'' or ''IEC'', in Catalan) is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". The IEC is known principally for its work in standardizing the Catalan language. The IEC is based in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. Officially the IEC provides standards for Catalonia proper, Northern Catalonia (located in France), the Balearic Islands, and the Principality of Andorra (the only country where Catalan is the sole official language). The Valencian Community has its own language academy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. In an area known as the Franja de Ponent, the eastern edge of Aragon adjacent to Catalonia where Catalan is spoken, the rules are used de facto although Catalan is not an official language.

Art [link]

Artists from Spain have been highly influential in the development of various European artistic movements. Due to historical, geographical and generational diversity, Spanish art has known a great number of influences. The Moorish heritage in Spain, especially in Andalusia, is still evident today in cities like Córdoba, Seville, and Granada. European influences include Italy, Germany and France, especially during the Baroque and Neoclassical periods.

Cinema [link]

Spanish cinema has achieved major international success including Oscars for recent films such as ''Pan's Labyrinth'' and ''Volver''. In the long history of Spanish cinema, the great filmmaker Luis Buñuel was the first to achieve world recognition, followed by Pedro Almodóvar in the 1980s. Spanish cinema has also seen international success over the years with films by directors like Segundo de Chomón, Florián Rey, Luis García Berlanga, Carlos Saura, Julio Medem and Alejandro Amenábar.

Architecture [link]

Due to its historical and geographical diversity, Spanish architecture has drawn from a host of influences. An important provincial city founded by the Romans and with an extensive Roman era infrastructure, Córdoba became the cultural capital, including fine Arabic style architecture, during the time of the Islamic Umayyad dynasty. Later Arab style architecture continued to be developed under successive Islamic dynasties, ending with the Nasrid, which built its famed palace complex in Granada.

Simultaneously, the Christian kingdoms gradually emerged and developed their own styles; developing a pre-Romanesque style when for a while isolated from contemporary mainstream European architectural influences during the earlier Middle Ages, they later integrated the Romanesque and Gothic streams. There was then an extraordinary flowering of the gothic style that resulted in numerous instances being built throughout the entire territory. The Mudéjar style, from the 12th to 17th centuries, was developed by introducing Arab style motifs, patterns and elements into European architecture.

The arrival of Modernism in the academic arena produced much of the architecture of the 20th century. An influential style centered in Barcelona, known as modernisme, produced a number of important architects, of which Gaudí is one. The International style was led by groups like GATEPAC. Spain is currently experiencing a revolution in contemporary architecture and Spanish architects like Rafael Moneo, Santiago Calatrava, Ricardo Bofill as well as many others have gained worldwide renown.

Music and dance [link]

Spanish music is often considered abroad to be synonymous with flamenco, a West Andalusian musical genre, which, contrary to popular belief, is not widespread outside that region. Various regional styles of folk music abound in Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Castile, the Basque Country, Galicia and Asturias. Pop, rock, hip hop and heavy metal are also popular. In the field of classical music, Spain has produced a number of noted composers such as Isaac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla and Enrique Granados and singers and performers such as Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Montserrat Caballé, Alicia de Larrocha, Alfredo Kraus, Pablo Casals, Ricardo Viñes, José Iturbi, Pablo de Sarasate, Jordi Savall and Teresa Berganza. In Spain there are over forty professional orchestras, including the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Orquesta Nacional de España and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. Major opera houses include the Teatro Real,the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Arriaga and the El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.

Thousands of music fans also travel to Spain each year for internationally recognised summer music festivals Sonar which often features the top up and coming pop and techno acts, and Benicàssim which tends to feature alternative rock and dance acts. Both festivals mark Spain as an international music presence and reflect the tastes of young people in the country.

The most popular traditional musical instrument, the guitar, originated in Spain. Typical of the north are the traditional bag pipers or ''gaiteros'', mainly in Asturias and Galicia.

Cuisine [link]

thumb|Paella, a traditional [[Valencian Community|Valencian dish]] Spanish cuisine consists of a great variety of dishes which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country's deep Mediterranean roots. Spain's extensive history with many cultural influences has led to a unique cuisine. In particular, three main divisions are easily identified: ''Mediterranean'' Spain – all such coastal regions, from Catalonia to Andalusia: heavy use of seafood, such as ''pescaíto frito''; several cold soups like gazpacho; and many rice-based dishes like paella from Valencia and arroz negro from Catalonia.

''Inner'' Spain – Castile: hot, thick soups such as the bread and garlic-based ''Castilian soup'', along with substantious stews such as cocido madrileño. Food is traditionally conserved by salting, like Spanish ham, or immersed in olive oil, like Manchego cheese.

''Atlantic'' Spain – the whole Northern coast, including Asturian, Basque, Cantabrian and Galician cuisine: vegetable and fish-based stews like ''pote gallego'' and marmitako. Also, the lightly cured lacón ham. The most known North countries cuisine often rely on the captures from close or distant seas, like the Basque-style cod, albacore or anchovy or the Galician octopus-based polbo á feira and shellfish dishes.

Science and technology [link]

In the 19th and 20th centuries science in Spain was held back by severe political instability and consequent economic underdevelopment. Despite the conditions, some noted scientists and engineers emerged. Among the most notable were Miguel Servet, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol, Celedonio Calatayud, Juan de la Cierva and Severo Ochoa.

Sport [link]

Sport in Spain has been dominated by football since the early 20th century. Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona are two of the most successful football clubs in the world. The country's national football team won the UEFA European Football Championship in 1964 and 2008 and the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

Basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, futsal, motorcycling and, lately, Formula One are also important due to the presence of Spanish champions in all these disciplines. Today, Spain is a major world sports powerhouse, especially since the 1992 Summer Olympics that were hosted in Barcelona, which stimulated a great deal of interest in sports in the country. The tourism industry has led to an improvement in sports infrastructure, especially for water sports, golf and skiing.

Rafael Nadal is the leading Spanish tennis player and has won several Grand Slam titles including the Wimbledon 2010 men's singles. In north Spain, the game of pelota is very popular. Alberto Contador is the leading Spanish cyclist and has won several Grand Tour titles including three Tour de France titles.

Public holidays [link]

Public holidays celebrated in Spain include a mix of religious (Roman Catholic), national and regional observances. Each municipality is allowed to declare a maximum of 14 public holidays per year; up to nine of these are chosen by the national government and at least two are chosen locally. Spain's National Day (Fiesta Nacional de España) is 12 October, the anniversary of the Discovery of America and commemorate Our Lady of the Pillar feast, patroness of Aragón and throughout Spain.

See also [link]

Outline of Spain

Index of Spain-related articles

References [link]

;Notes

;References

;Literature

External links [link]

Key Development Forecasts for Spain from International Futures

;Government Official website of the Spanish Government

060 e-government Portal

;Maps

;Tourism

Official tourism portal for Spain

}}

Category:Bicontinental countries Category:Constitutional monarchies Category:Countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean Category:Countries of the Mediterranean Sea Category:European countries Category:Liberal democracies Category:Member states of NATO Category:Member states of the European Union Category:Member states of the Union for the Mediterranean Category:Member states of the United Nations Category:Spanish-speaking countries Category:Western Europe

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