Vitoria-Gasteiz

---- This article treats Spanish city of Vitoria with the Basque Country. See also Vitória (Brazil) and the page of homonymy Vitória. ----

Vitoria-Gasteiz ( Spanish Vitoria in and Gasteiz in Basque) is the capital of the Province of Álava and sits of the government of the Basque autonomous Communauté in Spain by decision of the Basque government on March 20th, 1980. A saying is often used by the Basques to explain the statute of capital of commutauté of Vitoria: Biscay with Bilbao was the capital of the businesses with its banks and its industry, St Sebastien had tourism and the cultural life, it did not remain nothing with Álava and its chief town, therefore him the seat of the gouvernement.
was left The Official name of the city east Vitoria-Gasteiz

Geography

History

Vitoria was founded in 1181 by king Navarre Sancho IV with the site of a small village which would have been created one century before.

In the vicinity immediate took place the Bataille of Vitoria, the June 21st 1813, putting at the catches, on a side, the Napoleonean armies, ordered by the king Joseph Bonaparte and the marshal Jourdan, other, a coalition of British forces , Portuguese and Spanish, ordered by the duke of Wellington, and which showed a French defeat.

Demography

The city accounts for 76% of the total population of the province Álava. This concentration is single in Spain.

Population :

  • 30.701 inhabitants (1901)
  • 32.893 inhabitants (1910)
  • 34.785 inhabitants (1920)
  • 40.641 inhabitants (1930)
  • 49.752 inhabitants (1940)
  • 52.201 inhabitants (1950)
  • 73.701 inhabitants (1960)
  • 136.873 inhabitants (1970)
  • 192.173 inhabitants (1981)
  • 209.704 inhabitants (1991)
  • 222.329 inhabitants (2002)
  • 226.490 inhabitants (2004)

One measures, by these figures, the importance of the Spanish emigration on the population of Vitoria-Gasteiz during the Sixties and Seventies.

Economy

The city is an administrative city but also an important automobile industrial pole with a factory of assembly of the utiltaires of Mercedes and factories belonging to Michelin and Daewoo

Culture

Vitoria-Gasteiz accommodates many festivals, including, in 1991, the eleventh edition of the Festival Europa Cantat.

Other communes

This municipality counts the common following:

Twinning

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