- A Coruña (province)
A Coruña (also: La Coruña in Spanish, and La Croyne and Corunna in EnglishFact|date=August 2008) is the most North-western Atlantic-facing province of
Spain , and one of the four provinces which constitute the autonomous community of Galicia. This province is surrounded by theAtlantic Ocean to the West and North, the Pontevedra Province to the South and the Lugo Province to the East.International airports and helicopter airfields
* Aeroporto de Lavacolla in
Santiago de Compostela
* Aeroporto de Alvedro in the City of A Coruña
* Heliporto da Graña in the Naval Base of A Graña (Ferrolterra)
* Heliporto de Narón in Naron (Ferrolterra ).Railway
* Spanish National Railway Network Linking every single major City:
Ferrol ,Betanzos ,A Coruña andSantiago de Compostela .
* Spanish Narrow-Gauge Railways Linking the City of Ferrol with different towns of Ferrol andOrtegal . This line is also known asFerrol -Irun (Basque Country).
* Spanish High Speed Railway Network (AVE) Linking most major cities of the province withLisbon andMadrid is under construction and sometime in the future will be a reality (Possibly, before the end of the next decade).Major commercial and fishing ports
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A Coruña - Major Commercial Ports -
* Malpica - Fishing Port -
*Camariñas - Fishing Port -
* Fisterra - Fishing Port -
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*Cariño - Fishing Port -
*Espasante - Fishing Port -
*Cedeira - Fishing Port -National parks
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The "Fragas" of the River Eume National Park extends itself throughout the Eume and Ferrol regions ofFerrolterra .
*The Dunes of "Corrubedo" National Park is a beach park at the very end of the Barbanza Peninsula.
* Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park [ [http://www.noticiasgalicia.com/islas/inicio.html sp icon Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park] ] shared between the Provinces of A Coruña and Pontevedra.International World Surf Competitions
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The Ferrolterra Pantin Classic gathers every year some of the most international and remarkable figures in the world of surf
*Doninos, Esmelle and St. George's Beach the north of the province is very privilege for the quality of its beaches a most of them are ideal for Water Sports like surfing.History of the Province
The history of this province starts sometime at the end of the
Middle Ages during the reign of the Catholic Kings of Spain. But during those years this province was far smaller than what it is today, and this is because in 1833 the entire Province of Betanzos together with half of the Mondoñedo were amalgamated onto one single province with its capital city in A Coruña. That was going to be the beginning of a love hate relationship between the major cities caught in between:Ferrol ,Santiago de Compostela andA Coruña . It should be noted, that due to this unusual situation thedioceses of these parts of Galicia do not match any longer with the administrative divisions. Even worst than that, the capital city of the province does not have, and never had aCathedral but bothFerrol andSantiago de Compostela do have one. It should be note too, that the City of Santiago de Compostela is not the provincial capital, but has always been the Capital of Galicia and historically a rival to Toledo for being the most important city inSpain ecclesiastically speaking.Since 1833, the Province ofA Coruña has always been the one with the largest population and largest coast. Till the second half of the 20th century this province was both the religious and cultural centre of the entire region. It should be taken into account that theUniversity of Santiago de Compostela was the only one university in North-westernSpain till the arrival of democracy after the death of General Francisco Franco.The Industrial Revolution: Ferrol
The City of Ferrol in the Province of A Coruña was one of the first places, not just in Galicia but in
Spain to experiment and suffer from the entire set of socioeconomic changes which affected theUnited Kingdom in the first half of the 18th century and theUnited States and some parts ofEurope a century later. As a consequence of that, Ferrol will be one of the firstshipyards in the world to produce wooded ships covered with copper sheets in the early years of the 19th century, and by the end of the same century, the same shipyards were producing iron armoured ships.Ferrol was at one point the largest city in Galicia, the place of birth of people like Pablo Iglesias Posse the founder of theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party ,Concepción Arenal founder of the Spanish Feminist Movement, the Franco Brothers one pioneer of world’s aviation and the other hero of theSpanish Second Republic during the early years of the 20th century.The Peninsular War
In the Peninsular War, Sir John Moore headed a 30,000-strong British Force, which attacked Napoleon near Burgos, but they were soon forced into a long retreat chased by the French, ending in an evacuation from A Coruña in January 1809 in the
Battle of Corunna (also known by its many variants and as the "Battle of Elviña". Moore was killed by a cannon shot while directing the defence of the town. His burial inspired a well-known poem.panish Civil War
* Battle of La Corunna Road Fought in the outskirts of
Madrid literally on the road which lead at the time to the Province. (13 December 1936 to15 January 1937 ).The Second World War
The Following German U-Boats has been reported as sunk somewhere along the A Coruña Province's Coast:
*Unterseeboot 514 Sunk8 July ,1943 north-east ofCape Finisterre ,Spain . 54 dead (all hands lost).
*Unterseeboot 504 Sunk at 1543hrs on30 July ,1943 in theNorth Atlantic north-west ofCape Ortegal ,Spain . 53 dead (all hands lost).
*Unterseeboot 508 Sunk12 Nov ,1943 in theBay of Biscay north ofCape Ortegal ,Spain . 57 dead (all hands lost).The Province and City of Corunna during the 20th Century
After the
Battle of Trafalgar (1805), and the War of Independence (1808–1814) the fortune’s ofEl Ferrol started to go pear-shaped. This is how the largest port in northernSpain , site of one of the threeRoyal Dockyard s, together withCartagena andCadiz , almost became a "dead" town during the reign ofFerdinand VII . By 1833 the City and Naval Station ofFerrol saw its civilian population reduced to just 13,000. [en icon Population figures and other data taken from theUniversal Pronouncing Gazetteer By Thomas Baldwin , "Sixth Edition", (1847). [http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=-7MBAAAAYAAJ&dq=universal+pronouncing+gazetteer+by+thomas+baldwin&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=QQYLcgizRX&sig=zfw6It6B7cOnYiHWa9FGAv10BVM] ] Even though,during the administration of theMarquis de Molina , Minister for Naval affairs in the mid-19th century new activities will sprang up, Ferrol will never fully recovered up to its former glories. It must be noted at during these years, most of the Spanish Colonies in Latin America will succeed in gaining independence from its formermetropolis .Ultimately, the population of the City of A Coruña in 1900 ended up reaching 43,971 meanwhile the population of the rest of the province including the City and Naval Station of nearby
Ferrol as well asSantiago de Compostela was 653,556. [en icon Population figures and other data taken from theEncyclopædia Britannica , "Eleventh Edition", (1911). [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/scans/EB1911_png/VOL07%20CONSTANTINE%2C%20PAVLOVICH-DEMIDOV/EB7A225.png] ]A Coruña 's miraculous growth happened during aftermaths of theSpanish Civil War at the same speed as other major Galician cities, but it was the arrival of democracy in Spain after the death ofFrancisco Franco the moment when the City of Corunna left all the other Galician cities behind (i.e.: with the exception of Vigo of course).The miraculous meteoric increase of population of the City of Corunna and to a lesser degreeFerrol andSantiago de Compostela , during the years which follow theSpanish Civil War during the mid 20th century, can only be explained when we see the figures of the number of villages and hamlets of the province which disappeared or nearly disappeared during the same period. We are talking here about an economic revolution and not so much to an explosion of births or a substantial increase in living standards which of course has happened too, but looking to the overall picture what has happened is that the fields have been abandon due to the introduction of new machinery and most of the population has moved to find jobs in the main cities increasing the number of people working in the Tertiary and Quaternary sectors.The end of a University Monopoly: Santiago de Compostela
The late second half of the 20th century saw the City of Santiago de Compostela losing its monopoly over the university studies in Galicia; when all the other
Galician Universities were created. Still, not all were loses as the historical Capital of Galicia ended up being the chosen city for the Galician Government and its Parliament: both, new institutions created with the arrival ofdemocracy inSpain in the 1980s.The burial-place of Saint James the Great
The
cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is the reputed burial-place ofSaint James the Great , one of the apostles ofJesus Christ . It is the destination of theWay of St. James (popularly known by its local denominations: Galician "Camiño de Santiago", Portuguese "Caminho de Santiago", Spanish "Camino de Santiago", French "Chemin de St. Jacques", German "Jakobsweg", and so on), a major historicalpilgrimage route since theMiddle Ages which still gathers thousands of pilgrims each year from all sort of places in the world.Football teams (soccer)
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Deportivo de La Coruña Spanish FA Premier League team from the City of A Coruña.
*Racing de Ferrol Spanish Segunda Division team from the City of Ferrol.
*SD Compostela Spanish Tercera Division team from the City of Santiago de Compostela.
*Atlético Arteixo Spanish Segunda Division team from the Municipality of Arteixo.
*Bergantiños FC Spanish Tercera Division team from the Municipality of Carballo.
*SD Negreira Spanish Tercera Division team from the Municipality of Negreira.
*Autos Lobelle de Santiago FS Spanish División de Honor of Futsal team from the City of Santiago de Compostela.Pop/rock
* Deluxe: pop/rock band from
A Coruña led by Xoel López.
*Los Limones del Caribe :indie rock /indie pop /post-rock group fromEl Ferrol led by Ferrol bornSanti Santos active since the early 80s. [http://www.maketon.com/loslimones/biografia/151]
*Carlos Jean electronic musician and music producer of mix raceHispanic /Haitian origin born in Ferrol in 1973.ee also
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List of municipalities in A Coruña References
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