Andalusia

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For other uses, see Andalusia (disambiguation).

Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía


Flag	Coat of arms

Motto: Andalucía por sí, para España y la humanidad
(Andalusia by herself, for Spain, and for humankind)

Capital

Seville

Official language(s)

Spanish

Area
– Total
– % of Spain

Ranked 2nd
87,268 km²
17.2%

Population
– Total (2006)
– % of Spain
– Density

Ranked 1st
7,975,672
17.84
91.39/km²

Demonym
– English
– Spanish

Andalusian
andaluz, andaluza

Statute of Autonomy

December 30, 1981^[1]

Parliamentary
representation
– Congress seats
– Senate seats

62
40

President

Manuel Chaves González (PSOE)

ISO 3166-2

Junta de Andalucía

Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucía) is an autonomous community of Spain. Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of its land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute the Spanish nation. Its capital is Seville.

Andalusia is bounded on the north by the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha; on the east by the autonomous community of Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea; on the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Spain from Morocco, and the Atlantic Ocean. The British colony of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar.

1 History
2 Administrative divisions
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Further information: Al-Andalus

The Alhambra palace, Granada

Alamillo Bridge, Seville designed by Santiago Calatrava

Malecón of La Caleta, Cádiz

Andalusian House, showing traditional azulejos (glazed tiles) and rejas (ornate window bars)

Tartessos, the capital of the once-powerful Tartessian civilization, was located in Andalusia in pre-Roman times. The Phoenicians colonized several areas on the Andalusian coast during the early part of the first millenium BCE. Eventually, Andalusia became part of the Roman Empire. (More information about this region can be found in the article, Hispania Baetica, the name of the Roman province that included much of present-day Andalusia.)

The Vandals moved briefly through the region during the 5th century CE before settling in North Africa, after which the region fell into the hands of the Kingdom of the Visigoths whose capital was at Toulouse in present-day France. The Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula in 711 marked the collapse of Visigothic rule.

Andalusian culture has been deeply influenced by eight centuries of Muslim rule. Western astronomy, medicine, philosophy, and mathematics were all revolutionized by Moorish contributions in those fields. The Moors established universities in Andalusia, and they cultivated scholarship, bringing together the greatest achievements of all of the civilisations they had encountered. Muslim control of Andalusia ended in 1492 CE when the city of Granada was retaken by the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella.

Andalusia is known for its Moorish architecture. Notable examples include the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Córdoba, the Torre del Oro and Giralda towers and the Reales Alcázares in Seville, and the Alcazaba in Málaga. Archaeological ruins include Medina Azahara, near Córdoba, and Itálica, near Seville, and at Huelva, the Andalusian port from which Columbus's expedition of discovery was launched.

The Spanish language spoken in the Americas is largely descended from the Andalusian dialect of Spanish. This is due to the role played by Seville as the gateway to Spain's American territories during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Andalusia Day (in Spanish, Día de Andalucía) is celebrated on February 28, to commemorate the date of the successful referendum vote on autonomy.

[edit] Administrative divisions

Cordoba

Andalusia is divided into eight provinces named after the capital cities of these provinces:

Map of Andalusia

Other important Andalusian towns are:

El Ejido, and Roquetas de Mar, Almería
Algeciras, San Fernando, Jerez, and El Puerto, Cádiz
Almuñecar, Guadix and Motril, Granada
Úbeda and Baeza, Jaén
Antequera, Ronda and Marbella, Málaga
Dos Hermanas, Lebrija, Osuna and Utrera, Sevilla

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ The Statute of Autonomy for Andalusia was approved by "Ley Orgánica 6/1981, de 30 de diciembre, Estatuto de Autonomía para Andalucía", published in Boletín Oficial del Estado n. 9, 11 January 1982. As for "Decreto Ley 11/1978" a provisional Autonomous Government (Junta de Andalucía preautonómica) had already been created. The Statute of Autonomy has been reformed in 2006, and the amended text approved by the Senate of Spain and the Congress of Deputies of Spain. The new Statute will be voted on in a referendum in 2007.[1]