Here is a sample of the work I have done so far La Coruna La Coruna is a coastal city in the autonomous region of Galicia. The city is situated in the northwestern corner of Spain above Portugal. The city itself is actually on a peninsula looking out into the Atlantic ocean in a gulf known as Gulf of Artabro. The peninsula isthmus was originally a tiny strip of sand but over time grew thanks to sea currents gradually delivering more and more sand expanding the isthmus. Its location also makes it a great point for shipping out the region of Galicias agricultural goods. La Coruna has become the dominant economic region of Galicia in recent years making up 30% of the regions GDP. It has grown significantly in areas such as finance, and has become a popular city for business. The city also boasts the reputation of being the location where the first Zara store in the world was opened a now worldwide chain. The port of Galicia also sees large quantities of fresh fish and crude oil circulate through it. Galician seafood has traditionally been one of the regions large economic industries considering its large coastal locations. It has also recently been improving its infrastructure in relation to the tourism industry.
The city served as the capital of the kingdom of Galicia, and the regional administrative center for the Galician region of Spain until 1982 when the location was moved to Santiago de Compostela. The city has a long and rich history originally being a Celtic settlement as the region of Galicia started off as a Celtic region. The Romans invaded and built the iconic landmark of the city the Tower of Hercules a lighthouse a lighthouse perched on the coast of the city that still stands there today. After the Roman empire fell it shifted it began trading along the Atlantic although the city was mostly ruins and was largely ignored when the Muslim invaders showed up. Today the city has become a booming port city and is fairly successful. Despite the region no longer speaking a celtic language like Welsh, Irish Gaelic or Scottish Gaelic, the region of Galicia and La Coruna still hold on to its Celtic origins. The city has deep ties to the culture of its region Galicia. There is a heavy presence of the regional language Galician with all of the signs being written in both Spanish and Galician and a decent percentage of the population speaking the language. It also has ties to its celtic history with several statues and historic celtic sites such as walls and monoliths being strewn around the city as well as a statue of a celtic king at the entrance of the path to the tower of Hercules. La Coruna\u2019s climate is an Atlantic climate due to its position on the Atlantic coast. Temperatures are very mild in the region due to the Atlantic winds and the city is constantly overcast. The city frequently receives rain and averages about a thousand inches of rain in a year. The city has a population of about 246,00 people as of 2008 with a total metropolitan population of 419,000 people. The population density of the city is 6,600 people per square kilometer. The cities population has risen dramatically since the Spanish Civil War due to people from rural areas moving into the city. About 5% of the population is foreigners with the main groups being Brazilian, Columbians and Peruvians. As for the languages used primarily in the city about 7.5% of the population speak almost exclusively in Galcian, 36% use only Spanish and the rest switch back and forth between the two. Administratively the region is split into five different parishes and forty districts. It has a Mayor council style government and the current mayor of the city is Xulio Ferreiro. The council is known as the council of La Coruna and the city itself is a part of the Autonomous Galician community of Spain. It was also originally the administrative headquarters of the area but has since lost that position.
Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain and is a part of the autonomous Basque country. It is located in the province of Biscay and is the largest city in the province as well as the whole of the Basque country. It is also the tenth largest city in Spain with 345,000 people living in the city proper and 1 million residing in the entire metropolitan area. The city is about sixteen kilometers from the Bay of Biscay on the northern coast of Spain. The city is also located on the Basque threshold which is a group of mountains in the Cantabrian mountain range on the eastern side of it. The cities relief is mostly composed of folds with a northwest to southeast orientation. The city of Bilbao has an oceanic climate thanks to the fact that it is on Spain\u2019s Atlantic coast. Its rainy season generally lasts from October until April although the city is rainy all year round. The average amount of precipitation the city receives in a year is 1,134 inches. In terms of temperature the seasons are rather mild and it rarely gets really cold in winter or too hot in the summers. In terms of economy Bilbao has been the center of the Basque countries economy for a long time. This is due to its port being a good spot for the trading of products from the Castilan region. They have also made use of the iron mines nearby in order to expand their economy but in the 1850\u2019s the bank of Bilbao and in 1901 the bank of Biscay was also founded. These two banks merged in 1988 into the BBV which later merged with another corporation to form the BBVA. However, today the cities biggest industries are in construction, commerce and tourism. Tourism has become an important part of the cities economy ever since it opened the Guggenheim museum Bilbao in 1997. The city is the most visited tourist destination in the Basque country seeing even more tourists than San Sebastian. The majority of the tourists to Bilbao are from other areas of Spain. Like the rest of the Basque country the city observes a bilingual education system. Initially in primary school most children choose to learn primarily in the Basque language and learn Spanish simply as another subject. Then by secondary school the languages often share time with some classes being taught in Basque and others in Spanish. Culturally the city is very much a Basque city. The city was originally founded in the 14th century, although there is evidence of earlier settlements dating back to the 3rd century BC and ancient walls from the 11th century have also been discovered in the city. The city was also founded around the time a lot of other Biscay cities were being founded. On the 21st of June in 1511 Queen Joanna of Castile founded the Consulate of Bilbao, an institution that would go on to have a great effect on the city and its development. The Consulate turned Bilbao in to the economic center of the Basque country that it is today. In addition to this today Bilbao has several popular theatres within its city limits and a multitude of museums in addition to the Guggenheim museum Bilbao. The cities biggest festival is the Semana Grande that lasts for 9 days in August and has all sorts of different acivities that go on during it such as strongmand games and bullfighting. The city is comprised of 114,00 people born within the city, 114,000 from other Biscayan towns, 9500 from the other Basque provinces, 86,000 from the rest of spain and 33,500 foreigners. The city has a mayor council type government and contains 8 districts within the city. The districts are then split up into a further 35 different neighborhoods. The council is made up of 29 different counselors. With 15 seats going to the Basque nationalist party, 6 to the people’s party, and 4 to the Bildu party and Spanish Socialist workers party respectively. On the other side of the governmental system of Bilbao there is a mayor and a board of governors who are separate from the other side of the government the council.
Zaragoza Zaragoza is a city in the spanish autonomous community of Aragon and it is also the capital of the province of Zaragoza within that community. The city is located in northwestern Spain and it is not a coastal city. It is built on the Ebro river and is also in between the Aragon and Ebro basins. The city stands at an elevation of 653 feet and it also has an area of about 400 miles making up its entire city limits. Climatically it is in a semi-arid area as the city is surrounded by mountains which repel any moist air coming in from the coasts of Spain. The cities average annual rainfall is only around 12 inches. The summers in the city are hot with an average high in the summer months of 32 degrees celsius. The winters are also fairly chilly as well due to the semi arid climate and its position in the country. In terms of the cities economy it originally subsisted mostly on agricultural production and was not a very industrialized city. However recently the city has shifted and there is now several factories in the area producing things like kitchen appliances and train engines. This has given the city a new industry to drive its economy whereas before it had to make due with mostly agricultural production which is an area that can cause regions to stagnate and make it difficult to modernize as many areas in Spain have had trouble with especially the landlocked ones like the city of Zaragoza. The city also now has high speed rails traveling through it and its airport has become the fourth largest cargo hub in spain. As well as being the location of a Spanish air force base that was previously shared with the US air force and still trains US squadrons in Europe. It is also the location of Spain\u2019s largest army base due to its position on the peninsula. The city of Zaragoza was originally founded by the Roman emperor Augustus somewhere between 25 and 11 BC. Its original name was Caesaraugusta and was used as a location to settle army veterans and was captured by the Goths after the fall of the Roman empire. It was later conquered by the arabs and then incorporated into the kingdom of Aragon in the 1100\u2019s. In recent years the city has been a hub for Spain\u2019s armed forces and even contains the General Military Academy for training Spanish soldiers. The city has a very long Christian tradition dating back to the first century AD when Saint Mary supposedly appeared to Saint James the Great in Zaragoza on a pillar which has spawned its biggest cultural festival, the Fiesta del Pilar. The Fiesta del Pilar is held every year in October with its main day being October 12th. The Holy week is also a fairly big event for the city as it is a very religious city but it is not as big as the Fiesta del Pilar. The city also has one of the oldest universities in Spain the University of Zaragoza which has a partnership with MIT for an international Logistics program which shows the quality of the university. As of 2016 the city of Zaragoza boasts a population of 616,000 people and contains about half of the Aragonese population. The city also has a very sizeable population of immigrants with around 107,000 immigrants living in the city as reported in 2013. This foreign population is about 15% of the cities total population. The largest demographic being about 32,000 Romanians living in the city. In terms of government the city is run with a mayor council style government like many cities in Spain. The current mayor is Pedro Santisteve and the council is known as the Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza. The city also contains 15 districts and is a member of the Zaragoza district of the Aragon autonomous community in Spain.
Barcelona Barcelona is a city in the Autonomous Spanish community of Catalonia. Barcelona is located in the northwest of Spain on its coast with mountains to its back. The city has a lot of small hills on which different neighborhoods are situated and it also has the famous Montjuic a fort built on a hill right on the coast of the city which had been in use through the Spanish Civil War. The city is also only 120 kilometers away from the Pyrenees. Barcelona has a Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot summers and is a fairly humid city. Due to the fact that the city is right on the Mediterranean sea it rarely gets below freezing in the city and snow is an incredibly rare occurrence. The city receives the most rain in the fall and early summer and receives around 22 inches of rain annually. Barcelona and its metropolitan area have a total GDP of $177 billion dollars which puts it in the top 5 for strongest European cities in terms of gross GDP. In addition Barcelona is considered a great business city in europe and one of its fastest growing. Tourism is by far one of the strongest areas of its economy with a reported 8.36 million international tourists spending 8.9 billion dollars in the city. The city has heavily developed its tourist sector with hundreds of hotels, museums, as well as putting in a lot of effort to reduce crime in the city. It\u2019s also quite popular for its beaches, numerous world heritage sites, rich history, the architecture of Gaudi, its climate and many other things that make the city and attractive destination for international tourists. This has resulted in Barcelona becoming the most popular tourist destination in Spain. Manufacturing is also a big part of Barcelona\u2019s economy, the city has been a big manufacturing center for European cars for quite a while. Although the services sector has recently taken over as the cities main source of economy. In terms of government the city is the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia which makes it the seat of the Catalonian government. The city holds the executive branch, parliament and high court of the Catalonian government. The city itself is run by a council of 41 councillors, as well as a mayor. The councillors are elected for 4 years by way of universal suffrage. There is also the Comissio de Govern which is the executive branch of the cities government and the council is led by the mayor of Barcelona. The city is divided into ten districts which were designed based on the historical neighborhoods of the city or towns that were added to the city as it expanded. The city of Barcelona proper contains a total of 1,608,000 people as of 2016. This makes it the second largest city in Spain only smaller than the capital of Madrid. In addition the entire metropolitan area of Barcelona is populated by 5,083,000 people. Linguistically, Spanish is the most spoken language in Barcelona but the language of the Catalonia region Catalan is understood by 95% of the population. Of that 95%, 72% can speak it, 79% can read it and around 53% can write it. About 59% of the cities people were born in Catalonia, after that 18.5% hail from the rest of Spain and the remaining 22.5% come from international areas. The largest immigrant groups being from Italy, Pakistan and China. The city of Barcelona was founded by the Romans back in 15 BC. Throughout the yearsalong with the rest of Catalonia the city has developed a very strong cultural identity. This has recently led to conflict with the Spanish as many Catalonian citizens want independence from Spain and would like to see themselves as a separate country although this is a fairly complex issue and has only become a serious issue within the last year due to a botched independence referendum. The city also has a great musical history with lots of fantastic theatres and a striving alternative music scene being one of the best cities in europe for alternative music today. The cities local football team FC Barcelona has become and international brand and is a wildly successful team that observes a heated rivalry with Madrid’s best team Real Madrid. The stadium that FC Barcelona plays in is the largest stadium in Europe that is used exclusively for football. Another important event for the city was its hosting of the 1992 summer olympics which revitalized the city and turned it into what it is today.
Alicante The city of Alicante is in the Valencian region of Spain and is located in its southern part of the region in its southern province also known as Alicante. In 2016 the city was estimated to have a population of 330,000 which makes it the second largest city in the Valencian region, the entire metropolitan area of the city has a total of 757,000 citizens living in it. The city’s population is also about 15% foreign immigrants although it is probably higher because of a lot of northern european retirees in the area. The city is situated on Spain\u2019s western coast facing out into the Mediterranean on the Costa Blanca which is the traditional coastline for the Alicante province. Its climate is a hot semi-arid one due to its southern location in Spain. The city has an average annual temperature of about 18 degrees celsius. The city receives an average of 11 inches of rain a year although there can randomly be a heavy storm of rainfall that can amount to almost 4 inches. When one of these storms hits the city it can cause severe flooding because the city rarely receives rain as it is let alone a storm amounting to 4 inches. In terms of the economy the city was one of the fastest growing in Spain before the recession hit in 2008. The reason the recession hit the city in the way it did is that a decent portion of the cities growth at a time, the reason the city began to receive so much tourism was due to the beaches of Costa Brava that had begun to attract a lot of tourists. The city had also had a construction boom that started in the 90\u2019s which actually raised some concerns in the EU based on environmental concerns because of the questionable nature of a lot of the construction going on and its effect in the environment of Alicante. The city is also the residence of the European Union\u2019s intellectual property office, as well as a large university that has around 27,000 students. Another feature of the city\u2019s economy is the film studio the Ciudad de Luz which is one of the largest in Europe. In terms of government the city has an elected mayor and a total of 8 districts. There are several parties involved in the government, Guanyar Alacant, Compromis, Ciudadanos, and the People\u2019s Party. The current mayor is Gabriel Echavarri and one of the previous mayors Sonia Castedo was forced to step down after being involved in a few corruption scandals within the city. There is evidence that the city has been inhabited for 700 years with evidence of hunter gatherer tribes living around the area. Like many Spanish cities it had a heavy Roman presence for a while and as also taken over by the Muslims when they invaded Spain and was controlled by them for a few hundred years. All of this results in Alicante being a vibrant Valencian city. Its biggest festivals are the bonfires of Saint John which is held during the summer solstice and the Moros y Cristianos which celebrates the religious history between the muslims and the christians in the city. <\/p>\n