Azkoitia

Azkoitia (Spanish: Azcoitia) is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, in northern Spain. It is also the seat of the municipality of the same name.

Azkoitia
Municipality
Azkoitia's central square, with Paroquia Santa Maria La Real
Coat of arms
Azkoitia
Location of Azkoitia within the Basque Autonomous Community
Coordinates: 43°10′45″N 2°18′38″W
CountrySpain
Autonomous communityBasque Country
ProvinceGipuzkoa
ComarcaUrola Kosta
Founded1331 (1331)
Government
 • MayorJavier Zubizarreta (Basque Nationalist Party)
Area
 • Total54.71 km2 (21.12 sq mi)
Elevation
113 m (371 ft)
Population
 (2018)[1]
 • Total11,609
 • Density210/km2 (550/sq mi)
Demonym(s)Spanish: azcoitano
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
20720
WebsiteOfficial website

Geographical setting

Azkoitia and the municipality of the same name, are located on and around the upper Urola river valley, centered on a small alluvial plain surrounded by the Basque mountains. Except for the valley itself, the terrain is rather rugged, with elevations ranging to little less than 950 meters.

Population
A boulevard across the river from Azkoitia's old central square

As of 2004, the municipality numbers 10,946 inhabitants, of which 5,324 (49.867%) are men and 5,262 (50.133%) are women. Age is distributed among the sexes rather evenly with children and adolescents (0 to 17 years of age) forming 16.235% of the population, adults (18 to 54 years of age) making up 53.744%, and senior citizens forming the remaining 30.021%.

Historical relevance

Azkoitia was the birthplace of the mother of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit religious order. Ignatius' maternal grandfather, Don Martin Garcia de Licona, had purchased Balda Tower in the mid-15th century. Recurring bloody encounters in the region persuaded the king, Henry IV of Castile, to reduce the tower from a fortress to a courthouse. On 13 July 1467 Don Martin's daughter, Dona Marina Saenz de Licona Balda married Don Beltran Ibanez de Onaz y Loyola from neighbouring Azpeitia in the Licona family home in Azkoitia. The original wedding contract still exists.

Loyola's birth house is still preserved as a museum a part of a large Jesuit compound. It is located a few kilometers east of Azkoitia's city center, at the small community of Azpeitia, and is a major tourist attraction.

gollark: Well, the teachers are mostly not good programmers, programming is rather hard to explain to people, and ability levels are very mixed.
gollark: I find that school programming classes are actually bad, and not good.
gollark: My DNS records propagate in mere MINUTES*.
gollark: It isn't. Perhaps you're apioforms. Or your TTL is just long.
gollark: It should be implicit in all semicolons.

See also

José Larrañaga Arenas

References
  1. Municipal Register of Spain 2018. National Statistics Institute.

Notes
  1. ^ Demographics for all Basque municipalities


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.