1.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process 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, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
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Autonomous communities of Spain
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Spain is not a federation, but a highly decentralized unitary state. Some scholars have referred to the system as a federal system in all. There are 17 autonomous communities and two cities that are collectively known as autonomies. The two autonomous cities have the right to become autonomous communities, but neither has yet used this right and this unique framework of territorial administration is known as the State of Autonomies. The autonomous communities are governed according to the constitution and their own organic laws known as Statutes of Autonomy, since devolution was intended to be asymmetrical in nature, the scope of competences vary for each community, but all have the same parliamentary structure. Spain is a country made up of different regions with varying economic and social structures, as well as different languages. While the entire Spanish territory was united under one crown by the 16th century, the constituent territories—be it crowns, kingdoms, principalities or dominions—retained much of their former institutional existence, including limited legislative, judicial or fiscal autonomy. These territories also exhibited a variety of customs, laws. From the 18th century onwards, the Bourbon kings and the government tried to establish a more centralized regime, leading figures of the Spanish Enlightenment advocated for the building of a Spanish nation beyond the internal territorial boundaries. This culminated in 1833, when Spain was divided into 49 provinces and these were the Basque Country and Catalonia. This gave rise to peripheral nationalisms along with Spanish nationalism, therefore, economic and social changes that had produced a national cultural unification in France had the opposite effect in Spain. In a response to Catalan demands, limited autonomy was granted to Catalonia in 1913 and it was granted again in 1932 during the Second Spanish Republic, when the Generalitat, Catalonias mediaeval institution of government, was restored. During General Francos dictatorial regime, centralism was most forcefully enforced as a way of preserving the unity of the Spanish nation, peripheral nationalism, along with communism and atheism were regarded by his regime as the main threats. When Franco died in 1975, Spain entered into a phase of transition towards democracy, the then Prime Minister of Spain, Adolfo Suárez, met with Josep Tarradellas, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia in exile. An agreement was made so that the Generalitat would be restored and limited competencies would be transferred while the constitution was still being written. In the end, the constitution, published and ratified in 1979, found a balance in recognizing the existence of nationalities and regions in Spain, within the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation. The starting point in the organization of Spain was the second article of the constitution. In order to exercise this right, the established a open process whereby the nationalities
3.
Basque Country (autonomous community)
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The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, the Basque Country or Basque Autonomous Community was granted the status of nationality within Spain, attributed by the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The term Basque Country may also refer to the cultural region, the home of the Basque people. The territory has three areas, which are defined by the two parallel ranges of the Basque Mountains. The main range of forms the watershed between the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins. The highest point of the range is in the Aizkorri massif, the three areas are, Formed by many valleys with short rivers that flow from the mountains to the Bay of Biscay, like the Nervión, Urola or Oria. The coast is rough, with cliffs and small inlets. The main features of the coast are the Bilbao Abra Bay and the Estuary of Bilbao, the Urdaibai estuary, between the two mountain ranges, the area is occupied mainly by a high plateau called Llanada Alavesa, where the capital Gasteiz is located. The rivers flow south from the mountains to the Ebro River, the main rivers are the Zadorra River and Bayas River. From the southern mountains to the Ebro is the so-called Rioja Alavesa, some of Spains production of Rioja wine takes place here. Precipitation average is about 1200 mm, the middle section is more influence by the continental climate, but with a varying degree of the northern oceanic climate. This gives warm, dry summers and cold, snowy winters, the Ebro valley has a pure continental climate, winters are cold and dry and summers very warm and dry, with precipitation peaking in spring and autumn. Precipitation is scarce and irregular, as low as 300 mm, almost half of the 2,155,546 inhabitants of the Basque Autonomous Community live in Greater Bilbao, Bilbaos metropolitan area. Of the ten most populous cities, six form part of Bilbaos conurbation, with 28. 2% of the Basque population born outside this region, immigration is crucial to Basque demographics. Over the 20th century most of this came from other parts of Spain, typically from Galicia or Castile. Over recent years, sizeable numbers of population have returned to their birthplaces and most immigration to the Basque country now comes from abroad. Roman Catholicism is, by far, the largest religion in Basque Country, bilbao-Bilbo Vitoria-Gasteiz San Sebastián-Donostia Barakaldo Getxo Irun Portugalete Santurtzi Basauri Errenteria Spanish and Basque are co-official in all territories of the autonomous community. The Basque-speaking areas in the autonomous community are set against the wider context of the Basque language, spoken to the east in Navarre
4.
Biscay
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Biscay is a province of Spain located just south of the Bay of Biscay. The name also refers to a territory of the Basque Country. It is one of the most prosperous and important provinces of Spain as a result of the massive industrialization in the last years of the 19th century, since the deep deindustrialization of the 1970s, the economy has come to rely more on the services sector. It is accepted in linguistics that Bizkaia is a cognate of bizkar, “Bizkaia” is the Basque denomination recommended by the Royal Academy of the Basque language, and it is commonly used on official documents on that language. It is also used on documents in Spanish, and it is the most used denomination by the media in Spanish in the Basque Country. It is also the used in the Basque version of the Spanish constitution. Bizkaia is also the official denomination approved for the historical territory by the Juntas Generales of the province. “Vizcaya” is the denomination in Spanish, recommended by the Royal Spanish Academy and it is used in non-official documents and, in general, by Spanish speakers. It is also the Spanish denomination used in the Spanish version of the Constitution, Biscay has been inhabited since the Middle Paleolithic, as attested by the archaeological remains and cave paintings found in its many caves. The Roman presence had little impact in the region, and the Basque language, Biscay was identified in records of the Middle Ages, as a dependency of the Kingdom of Pamplona that became autonomous and finally a part of the Crown of Castile. The first mention of the name Biscay was recorded in an act to the monastery of Bickaga. According to Anton Erkoreka, the Vikings had a base there from which they were expelled by 825. The ria of Mundaka is the easiest route to the river Ebro and at the end of it, in the modern age, the province became a major commercial and industrial area. Its prime harbour of Bilbao soon became the main Castilian gateway to Europe, later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the abundance of prime quality iron ore and the lack of feudal castes favored rapid industrialization. The first evidence of dwellings in Biscay happens in this period of prehistory. Mousterian artifacts have been found in three sites in Biscay, Benta Laperra, Kurtzia and Murua, chatelperronian culture can be found in Santimamiñe cave. The Benta Laperra cave has the oldest paintings, maybe from the Aurignacian or Solutrean period, bison and bear are the animals depicted, together with abstract signs. The murals of Arenaza and Santimamiñe were created in later periods, in Arenaza female deer are the dominant motif, Santimamiñe features bison, horses, goats and deer
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Bilbao
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Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 345,141 As of 2015, Bilbao is also the main urban area in what is defined as the Greater Basque region. Bilbao is situated in the part of Spain, some 16 kilometres south of the Bay of Biscay, where the economic social development is located. Its main urban core is surrounded by two mountain ranges with an average elevation of 400 metres. This was due to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Biscayan quarries, at the same time an extraordinary population explosion prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. The official name of the town is Bilbao, as known in most languages of the world, there is no consensus among historians about the origin of the name. Generally accepted accounts state that prior to the 12th century the independent rulers of the territory, the symbols of their patrimony are the tower and church used in the shield of Bilbao to this day. One possible origin was suggested by the engineer Evaristo de Churruca and he said that it was a Basque custom to name a place after its location. For Bilbao this would be the result of the union of the Basque words for river and cove, the historian José Tussel Gómez argues that it is just a natural evolution of the Spanish words bello vado, beautiful river crossing. On the other hand, according to the writer Esteban Calle Iturrino, the first, where the present Casco Viejo is located, would be called billa, which means stacking in Basque, after the configuration of the buildings. The second, on the bank, where now Bilbao La Vieja is located, would be called vaho. From the union of these two derives the name Bilbao, which was written as Bilvao and Biluao, as documented in its municipal charter. An -ao ending is present in nearby Sestao and Ugao. Titles Bilbao holds the historic category of borough, with the titles of «Very noble and very loyal and it was the Catholic Monarchs who awarded the title «Noble borough» on 20 September 1475. Philip III of Spain, via a letter in 1603 awarded the borough the titles of «Very noble, after the Siege of Bilbao, during the First Carlist War, on 25 December 1836, the title of «Unbeaten» was added. Remains of an ancient settlement were found on the top of Mount Malmasín, burial sites were also found on Mounts Avril and Artxanda, dated 6,000 years old. Some authors identify the old settlement of Bilbao as Amanun Portus, cited by Pliny the Elder, or with Flaviobriga, ancient walls, which date from around the 11th century, have been discovered below the Church of San Antón. On 21 June 1511, Queen Joanna of Castile ordered the creation of the Consulate of Bilbao and this would become the most influential institution of the borough for centuries, and would claim jurisdiction over the estuary, improving its infrastructure
6.
IKEA
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IKEA, is a multinational group, headquartered in the Netherlands, that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories. It has been the worlds largest furniture retailer since at least 2008, the company is known for its modern architectural designs for various types of appliances and furniture, and its interior design work is often associated with an eco-friendly simplicity. The IKEA group has a corporate structure, which the European Union has alleged was designed to avoid over 1 billion Euros in tax payments over the 2009-2014 period. It is controlled by several foundations based in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, as of December 2016, IKEA owns and operates 392 stores in 48 countries. In fiscal year 2016, €36.4 billion worth of goods were sold, the IKEA website contains about 12,000 products and is the closest representation of the entire IKEA range. There were over 2.1 billion visitors to IKEAs websites in the year from September 2015 to August 2016, the company is responsible for approximately 1% of world commercial-product wood consumption, making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector. Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business and it began to sell furniture five years later. The first Möbel-IKÉA store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958, the first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway and Denmark. The stores spread to parts of Europe in the 1970s, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland. Amid a high level of success, the companys West German executives accidentally opened a store in Konstanz in 1973 instead of Koblenz, later that decade, stores opened in other parts of the world, such as Japan, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. IKEA further expanded in the 1980s, opening stores in such as France and Spain, Belgium, the United States. The company then expanded into more countries in the 1990s and 2000s, Germany, with 50 stores, is IKEAs biggest market, followed by the United States, with 44 stores. At the end of the 2009 financial year, the IKEA group operated 267 stores in 25 countries, the first IKEA store in Latin America opened on 17 February 2010 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. As of July 2013, the presence in developing countries remains minimal. The next store opening in Goyang in 2017 will be larger at 164,000 square meters in gross floor area. IKEA plans to have 6 stores in the country by 2020, four in the Seoul Capital Area, one in Daejeon, the largest store in the Southern Hemisphere is located in Tempe, Sydney, Australia with a total area of 39,000 m2. The biggest store in North America is located in Montreal, in the province of Quebec, the store was opened in 1986 in the Ville-St-Laurent area, and was completely renovated and expanded in 2012-2013. Built in 1986, the initial area was 22,062 m2
7.
Metro Bilbao
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Metro Bilbao is a rapid transit system serving the city of Bilbao and the region of Greater Bilbao. Its lines have a Y shape, with two lines that both banks of the Nervión river and then combine to form one line that ends in the south of Bilbao. The network of Metro Bilbao is connected with Euskotren Tranbia, Bilboko Aldiriak, Euskotren Trena, Feve, as of 2013, the Metro operates on 43.28 kilometers of route, with 42 stations with 80 accesses. It is the third largest Metro company in Spain by number of passengers carried behind the Madrid, on February 21,2007, the Basque Government announced a project for the construction of a third metro line, which in the future will be expanded to Bilbao Airport. Construction of the new line began in July 2008, on January 25,2008, the preliminary layout of lines four and five was published. At the same time, the University of the Basque Country requested the construction of Line 6 in order to connect Leioa and Getxo with Asua Valley going through the university campus. The section between the stations of San Inazio and Etxebarri is the same for Lines 2 and 1 with 10.39 kilometres, Bolueta Station Euskotren Trena, L1, L1d and L3 Bizkaibus, Lines A2610, A3613, A3621, A3622, A3918, A3928 and A3929. At the same time, Urbinaga Station was built with the intention of connecting lines C1 and C2 of Cercanías, however, these connection projects have not been finished as of 2011. Eventually the Urbinaga project was restarted in 2009 and that future intermodal station will also take advantage of the future Leioa-Urbinaga Tram. Its construction was expected to start at the end of 2009, the idea of building a metro system in the city of Bilbao is an old one. In the 1920s the citys council prepared a project to build a system in the neighbourhoods of Abando. Soon after, the crises and the Spanish Civil War put a definitive end to the project. In 1971 the government of Biscay, the Bilbao City Council, in 1976, five years later, the Biscay Transport Consortium was created. In that same year two proposals were created to start a service in 1985, the first of them is almost identical to the current network. A year later a project was created to build the metro, however lots of objections were raised against it, in 1985 the construction plans were altered and a new project was created. Finally in 1987 the Basque Government approved the plan to build, a metro system was deemed to be the best way to improve congestion problems in the evolving and regenerating city. The contract for the metro system in Bilbao was awarded to the architects Sir Norman Foster. The same year the first underground station was opened in Erandio, in 1989 construction began in the city centre, where the main Moyúa square was closed to pedestrians until 1997
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Bilbao Airport
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Bilbao Airport is a public airport located 9 km north of Bilbao, in the municipality of Loiu, in Biscay. It is the most important airport in the Basque Country and northern Spain and it is famous for its new main terminal opened in 2000 designed by Santiago Calatrava. After various aeronautic experiments in the province of Biscay, in October 1927 steps were taken by the Union of Public Works to establish an airport in Bilbao, a Provincial Board was created to study the possible location of the airport. It was not until 1936 that the General Aeronautics Management authorised the installation of an airport in Sondika, however, due to the sites many deficiencies, the airport was not considered of interest. Bilbao is surrounded by mountains and a flat valley without significant population had to be found, the construction works commenced during the Civil War but during this time and until June 1937 the airport was only used as a base for military activities. In 1938, the stage of the airports development began. In 1940, it was decided by agreement with the local organisations affected to build a civilian airport in Sondika. The construction works progressed slowly and on 19 September 1948, the airport was at last opened to traffic with the establishment of an air path to Madrid by Aviación y Comercio. Two years later, the terminal, named Carlos Haya after the pilot from Bilbao. In 1955, a taxiway was built to link the runway with the parking stands, an apron measuring 124 by 60 m, a hangar for the Royal Flying Club of Vizcaya and permanent facilities for Campsa were also built. Between 1964 and 1965, an instrumental ILS landing system and a radio for storm detection were installed, the runway was extended to 2,000 m. In 1975, the runway was surfaced and its orientation became 10/28 due to the change in magnetic declination, in 1977, the parking stand was extended, a link road was built and an ILS system was instaled. The runway 12/30, measuring 2,600 m long, was opened the same year, as a result of the population density of the area, approaching planes may have to fly over the extensive Derio cemetery. On 19 February 1985, an Iberia flight from Madrid crashed into Mount Oiz, all passengers, in 1996, a new taxiway with two rapid exits and a new aircraft parking apron were built. The works required the removal of tons of soil poisoned with lindane residues, in May 1999, the new tower control was put into service, which allowed for a more centred vision of the airfield and at the same time facilitated airport operations. In February 2009 plans were announced to expand the building, the facilities. The terminal has a design, with two symmetrical wings and a sharp tip at its center which is specially visible when approaching the terminal from the sides. This original design has granted the building the nickname of La Paloma, white concrete and glass have been used
9.
Basque Nationalist Party
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The Basque Nationalist Party is a Christian democratic and Basque nationalist party. It is both the oldest and largest Basque nationalist political party and it is especially strong in Biscay but has a great sway in the entire Basque Autonomous Community and has a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country. The party has led the Basque regional government for a period spanning since the devolution of Basque autonomy in the early 1980s until 2009. It has also played an important role in the Spanish Congress, in Basque it is called Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea Basque Nationalist Party and in Spanish it is called the Partido Nacionalista Vasco. In Spain it is referred to as PNV whereas its French branch is the Parti Nationaliste Basque. The party typically refers to itself as EAJ-PNV, the current chairman of EAJ-PNV is Andoni Ortuzar. The youth wing of the Basque Nationalist Party is called EGI Euzko Gaztedi Indarra Basque Youth Force, the party also has offices among the Basque diaspora, mainly in Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and the United States. Since 1932, EAJ-PNV celebrates on Easter the Aberri Eguna Homeland Day, also, since 1977, the party celebrates Alderdi Eguna Party Day. The partys social offices are called batzokis, of which there are over 200 throughout the world, currently a member of the European Democratic Party, the Basque Nationalist Party was previously a member of the European Free Alliance from 1999 to 2004. Currently, it describes itself as Basque, democratic, participatory, plural and it is a moderate nationalist party which favours greater autonomy, for the Basque nation. In its beginnings, the party established a requirement for its members to prove Basque ancestry by having a number of Basque surnames. In 1921, the Arana movement split into the traditionalist Comunión Nacionalista Vasca, during the single party dictatorship rule of general Miguel Primo de Rivera, the nationalist parties were outlawed and persecuted. However, its activity continued under the guise of mountain and folklore clubs, at the end of 1930, Aberri and CNV reunited under the old name of EAJ-PNV. However, a group formed Acción Nacionalista Vasca. It was on the moderate nationalist left, non-confessional and open to alliances with the republican, the division between autonomism and independentism appeared again during the second Spanish Republic. Headed by Eli Gallastegi, a group of independentists, gathered around the weekly Jagi-Jagi. They rejected the autonomy that PNV was working for, after the coup détat of 18 July 1936, the party felt torn. In the territory seized by the rebels, PNV members faced tough times, during the military uprising in Navarre, the Basque nationalist mayor of Estella-Lizarra Fortunato Aguirre was arrested by the Spanish nationalist rebels, and killed in September
10.
Bilbao Exhibition Centre
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The Bilbao Exhibition Centre is the headquarters of the Feria de Muestras de Bilbao. Its facilities are located on land occupied by the company Altos Hornos de Vizcaya in the neighbourhood of Ansio in Barakaldo, Basque Country. These new facilities, opened in April 2004, allow for higher-capacity international fairs with better services, infrastructure, and connections. In addition to the halls, the Fair has a VIP hall, a conference center,6,500 square feet dedicated to office space. It also has a car park with capacity for 4,000 vehicles. On the roof, a solar energy park has been installed. The park has 628 solar photovoltaic panels and achieves an output of 100 kW in an area of 1,000 square metres. The BEC Tower, at 98 metres high, was the tallest building the Basque Country when it opened, in 2009, the title of tallest building went to the Torre Iberdrola, which was finished in 2011 and it has a height of 165 metres. A restaurant and the offices of the BEC company are located in the tower, Bizkaia Arena is the largest multi-purpose hall in Spain, since it can accommodate up to 26,000 people, and 18,640 for most indoor sports. It forms part of Bilbao Exhibition Centre complex and also part of the Bilbao and Biscay Exhibition, the venue regularly hosts basketball matches. Since 2009, it has hosted Bilbao Basket matches, in 2007 and 2008, the arena has hosted the final stage of the 2010 Kings Basketball Cup, and will be one of the sites of 2014 FIBA World Championship, hosted by Spain. Several national and international fairs are held in the BEC facilities, including Ferroforma, The Biennial Machine-Tool Fair, in the Bizkaia Arena, basketball games, plays, motocross races, and music concerts are held. The main political parties in the region hold campaign events and sometimes their congresses there, similarly, several labor unions and business organizations hold a variety of meetings and conventions. The Jehovahs Witnesses have held their May and December meetings there for several years, alongside the construction of the BEC, the Ansio station on Line 2 of Metro Bilbao was built. Around the center are other Bizkaibus stops
Spain
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Baracaldo". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 379.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
