Ea is a town and municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 located in the province of Biscay

Biscay

Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

, in the
autonomous community of Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

, northern Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

The town has three boroughs: Ea, Bedarona and Natxitua. The main one, Ea, is the most populated of the municipality, which has a total population of 870 (2007).

Geography

Ea is located on the coast, 50 km northeast from Bilbao

Bilbao

Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...

, in the bottom of a tiny estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

 that breaks through the cliffs of the Bay of Biscay

Bay of Biscay

The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...

.
The Ea river crosses the town, which has three bridges, the oldest one being the so called "Roman Bridge" (featured in the coat of arms) that is really a medieval one.
There is a small fishing port, but the predominant activities of the town are agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, silviculture

Silviculture

Silviculture is the practice of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet diverse needs and values. The name comes from the Latin silvi- + culture...

and cattle , with many farms disperse around the typically basque countryside.

History

The area was a rural one, centered on the parishes of Natxitua and Bedarona. In the 16th century, fishermen from both villages founded a new permanent settlement at the bottom of the tiny estuary of the river Ea. After two centuries, the settlement became far more important than its two neighbouring villages, so finally a new municipality was created, uniting the two former villages and with capital in Ea. As a remainder of its past as two separated parishes, Ea has two main churches, one at each bank of the river.