Portal:Spain
EL PORTAL DE ESPAÑA
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Spain (Spanish: España), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España), is a country in southern Europe. It is located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. The country consists of Peninsular Spain which is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, two archipelagos, one in each sea, and two autonomous cities in North Africa. The mainland area of Spain is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the southern and eastern areas, the Cantabric Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Spain is organised as a parliamentary democracy and is a constitutional monarchy. Spain has been a member of the European Union since 1986 and is a developed country, with the ninth largest economy in the world and fifth largest in the EU. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe (behind France).
Spain flourished under the Roman empire Hispania, thus becoming one of the Empire's most important regions at the time. During the times of the Middle Ages, Spain was under Germanic rule, only later to come under the rule of the Islamic caliphate. Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th century, following the completion of the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula in 1492. It has been an important source of influence to other regions, chiefly during the Modern Era, when it became a global empire that has left a legacy of over 500 million Spanish speakers today, making it the world's second most spoken first language.
The Biblioteca Nacional de España ('The National Library of Spain') is a major public library, the largest in Spain. It is located in Madrid near the Paseo de Recoletos. Founded in 1711, the Library was originally The Royal Public Library of King Philip V. It housed some 60,000 books by 1752, by which time it had become a legal deposit library. The Library continued to grow, and had significant royal patronage throughout the 18th century. By 1836 it had been renamed as The National Library of Spain ('Biblioteca Nacional de España'), and by 1850 it housed some 200,000 items. In 1896 the Library moved to the current location in center Madrid. The Madrid premises are shared with the National Archaeological Museum.
Its current catalog is called the Bibliografía Española. It indexes some 6,000,000 books and journals, 25,000 manuscripts, and 240,000 rare books. In addition to books, maps and manuscripts, it holds collections of visual material such as drawings, posters, and photographs.
Las Médulas, located near the town of Ponferrada in León province, Spain, used to be the most important gold mine in the Roman Empire. Las Médulas Cultural Landscape is listed by the UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites.
Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero-Blanco (March 4, 1903, Santoña, Cantabria – December 20, 1973, Madrid) was a Spanish admiral and statesman. In July 1936, when the Spanish Civil War erupted, Carrero Blanco found himself behind the coalescing Republican line. Taking refuge in the embassy of Mexico and later that of France, he was able to sneak across the front and reach the Nationalist side in June of 1937. Carrero Blanco then served in the Nationalist navy. After the Nationalist victory and subsequent installation of Generalísimo Francisco Franco as military dictator (Caudillo) of Spain, Carrero Blanco became one of his closest collaborators as well a chief of naval operations.
He was said to be in opposition to Spain entering World War II on the side of the Axis powers, a notably different political position compared to some other Falangists. Carrero Blanco himself was a monarchist. Devoted to the Roman Catholic Church, he was close to Opus Dei. After as political career of many positions, he reached its zenith in June 1973 upon being named Prime Minister of Spain and made a top deputy to Franco. It seemed as though it was only a matter of time before he would succeed the ailing dictator. Blanco was assassinated in 1973 in Madrid by four members of the ETA.
- ...that, besides Spanish, other languages such as Catalan, Basque or Galician are spoken in Spain?
- ...that the modern name Spain comes from Hispania, the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula?
- ...that, in the 8th century, nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered (711-718) by Muslim armies of Moor origin from North Africa?
| “ | There are so many beautiful parts of the world... Thailand, Italy, the south of France. There are places in Spain that are astonishing. But here . . . 25 miles and you go up on Mount Tam to see the fog come in; 25 miles the other direction and you're somewhere else that takes your breath away. There's no question this is where I want to live. Never has been. | ” |
Battle of Bicocca • Battle of Ceresole • El Greco • Italian War of 1521–1526 • Lince (tank) • Salvador Dalí • Same-sex marriage in Spain • T-26 • War of the League of Cambrai • Verdeja (tank) • War of the Spanish Succession
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