(Redirected from Andalucia)
'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 of the
Kingdom of Spain. 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.
History
Tartessians and Phoenicians
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 millennium BCE. The Oldest being
Cadiz around 1100BC. This brought them in contact with the innerland Tartessians.
Carthaginians and Romans
With the fall of Phoenicia in the East, the
Semitic towns on the coasts of Andalusia turned into the biggest North African Phoenician colony
Carthage and Andalusia became the major staging ground for the war vs Rome led by
Hannibal from
Cartagena. The Romans eventually were able to reverse the tide of the war and conquer Andalusia. From then on the region was given the name
Betica.
Vandals and Visigoths
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 who had to face the Byzantine interests in the region.
Arabs and Moors
Main articles: Al-Andalus
The
Umayyad Caliphate invasion of the
Iberian peninsula in 711-718 marked the collapse of Visigothic rule. Andalucian culture was deeply influenced by half a millennium of Muslim rule during the
Middle Ages.
Córdoba became the largest and richest city in Western Europe and one of the largest in the world. The
Moors established universities in Andalucia, and cultivated scholarship, bringing together the greatest achievements of all of the civilisations they had encountered. During that period Moorish and Jewish scholars played a major part in reviving and contributing to Western
astronomy,
medicine,
philosophy and
mathematics. With the fall of
Seville in 1248 most of Andalucia came under
Castilian control, leaving only the
emirate of
Granada under Muslim rule until it too was conquered by the
Catholic monarchs,
Ferdinand and
Isabella in 1492. The largest Arabic speaking population was in Andalucia, which also received Moors from other regions who were driven south by the
Reconquista, and although many either converted or left later, they gave the region its distinctive character till this day.
Andalucia is known for its
Moorish and Moorish influenced 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.
Geography
Administrative divisions
Provinces of Andalusia
'Other' important Andalusian cities are:
★
El Ejido, and
Roquetas de Mar, Almería
★
La Línea de la Concepción,
Algeciras,
Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
Rota,
San Fernando,
Jerez, and
El Puerto, Cádiz
★
Almuñécar,
Guadix and
Motril, Granada
★
Úbeda and
Baeza, Jaén
★
Antequera,
Ronda and
Marbella, Málaga
★
Dos Hermanas,
Lebrija,
Osuna and
Utrera, Sevilla
Economy
Transports and commerce
The main road in the region is the European Route E15
Government and Politics
The Autonomous Comunitie of Andalusia is administrated through the "Junta de Andalucia" and is one of the 4 historic Autonomous Communities of Spain. It has a local parliament and president.
Monuments
Native or Famous people from Andalusia
★
Antonio Banderas
★
Carmen Sevilla
★
Manuel de Falla
★
Lola Flores
★
Felipe Gonzalez
★
Blas Infante
★
Maimonides
★
Federico Garcia Lorca
★
Pablo Picasso
★
Rocio Jurado
★
Isabel Pantoja
★
Estrella Morente
★
Diana Navarro
★
Diego Velázquez
★
Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
★
Trajan
★
Seneca the Younger
''see also ''
Others topics
See also
★
Andalusian people
★
List of Andalusians
★
Andalusian nationalism
★
Music of Andalusia
★
Andalusian cuisine
★
Canal Sur
★
Canal Sur Radio
★
Canal Fiesta Radio
★
San Clemente Island goats
References
External links
★
Official Tourism Website of Andalusia
★
History of the Andalusian Flag
★
Andalucia Photo and History Pages
★
FiestasdeAndalucia.com Fairs and traditional fiestas of Andalusia
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