Getxo
Encyclopedia
Getxo is a town located in the province of Biscay
, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country
, in the north of Spain
.
It is part of the metropolitan area of Bilbao
(Greater Bilbao), and has about 83,000 inhabitants. Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the third largest municipality of Biscay.
(anteiglesia, elizatea), originally a rural area, including a large beach at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao
, centered on the little fishing village of Algorta
. The parish council met at the church of Getxoko Andra Mari (Basque
) or Santa María de Getxo (Spanish) (both mean Our Lady of Getxo), not far from the headland called Punta Galea
.
The town's coat of arms has an oak with two cauldrons chained to its branches and the motto Kaltea Dagianak Bizarra Lepoan (Basque
for "He who makes evil, the beard at his back").
With industrialisation in the 19th century, some parts of Getxo evolved into residential areas for the rich bourgeois class. A residential area called Neguri
(Basque
for "Winter Town") came into being. The village of Algorta grew around the church of San Nicolás and the canalisation of the firth, provided for the colonisation of the beach, where a district called Areeta in basque and Las Arenas
(Spanish for "The Sands") was built. Near Areeta / Las Arenas, on the other side of the road to Bilbao, there grew a working-class district called Romo, similar to the one that grew near Neguri: Neguri Langile. Finally, in the 20th century, urban development reached the rural areas of Santa María de Getxo
.
Getxo, as well as the surrounding area known as Uribe-Kosta
, grew rapidly in the last decades of the 20th century. While in the early 80s the town had only 50,000 inhabitants, it has now more than 83,000. The surrounding towns of Leioa
, Berango
and Sopelana
have also seen multiplied their population in the same period.
Getxo was hit by the Basque Conflict
several times, with the town being place of many ETA attacks, such as the car bomb attack on May 19, 2008
. Many activists of the organisation have been born in Getxo, such as Arkaitz Goikoetxea
.
Getxo's office of Mayor has been continuously in the hands of the Basque Nationalist Party
(EAJ-PNV) since democracy was restored in 1978 (Local Elections). Since 1991, the major opposition party has been the Partido Popular
. Other parties represented on the Town Council are the Socialist Party of Euskadi (PSE-EE
) and the United Left (IU)
.
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Political party !! Votes !! % votes !!town councillors
|-
|EAJ-PNV || 14 182 || 32,92 % || 10
|-
|PP
|| 12 978 || 30,13 % || 9
|-
|Bildu
|| 7 048 || 16,36% || 4
|-
|PSE-EE || 4 170 || 9,68 % || 2
|-
|IU
|| 1 067 || 2,48 % || 0
|-
Getxo has five different districts, which serve administrative and electoral purposes: Algorta
, Las Arenas
, Romo
, Santa María de Getxo
and Neguri
.
It is possible to travel to Getxo from Bilbao
using the city's modern underground Metro system
, which has 5 stations in the town. Getxo is also accessible from Portugalete
, by means of the Puente Colgante
transporter bridge
. The ferry Pride of Bilbao
reaches Portsmouth
from Getxo's neighbour Santurce
, and Bilbao Airport
is also not far away in Loiu
(Lujua in Spanish).
Getxo has some tourist appeal with easy access to several beaches, and to the regional economic capital of Bilbao. It has a yacht
harbour, a golf course
, and several sports complexes (both public and private). A dynamic, semi-autonomous Department of Culture organises many events on a regular basis, including several international music festival
s given over to jazz
, the blues
and folk
.
The town has many houses of architectural interest, including the Town Hall and several churches, as well as private dwellings belonging to members of the wealthy industrialist class of Biscay. The Old Harbour district of Algorta and several parks with views across to the bay called the Bilbao Abra
are also worth a visit.
football team is based in Getxo, and took part in the first ever
national Spanish football league
season.
Getxo Artea
is the local rugby
team and play in the División de Honor
.
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 the 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....
, in the north of 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...
.
It is part of the metropolitan area of 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...
(Greater Bilbao), and has about 83,000 inhabitants. Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the third largest municipality of Biscay.
History
Getxo was a parishParish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
(anteiglesia, elizatea), originally a rural area, including a large beach at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao
Estuary of Bilbao
The Estuary of Bilbao lies at the common mouth of the rivers Nervion, Ibaizabal and Cadagua, that drain most of Biscay and part of Alava in the Basque Country, Spain. It is a large estuary long that extends from Bilbao to the Bilbao Abra bay, a widening that makes the final transition between...
, centered on the little fishing village of Algorta
Algorta
Algorta is a locality within the municipality of Getxo, in the province of Biscay, Basque Country, Spain. In 1996, the population of Algorta was 35,600....
. The parish council met at the church of Getxoko Andra Mari (Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
) or Santa María de Getxo (Spanish) (both mean Our Lady of Getxo), not far from the headland called Punta Galea
Punta Galea
Punta Galea is a cape in Biscay, Basque Country, that stands in the limit of Getxo and Sopelana. Together with Punta Lucero delimits the area of the Abra bay and the Estuary of Bilbao.Punta Galea was also a pop group from Getxo....
.
The town's coat of arms has an oak with two cauldrons chained to its branches and the motto Kaltea Dagianak Bizarra Lepoan (Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
for "He who makes evil, the beard at his back").
Neguri
Neguri is an affluent district of Getxo, in Biscay, Basque Country. It is traditionally regarded as the residence of the prosperous Basque industrial bourgeoisie. Its name, coined in the 19th century, means Winter Town in Basque language....
(Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
for "Winter Town") came into being. The village of Algorta grew around the church of San Nicolás and the canalisation of the firth, provided for the colonisation of the beach, where a district called Areeta in basque and Las Arenas
Las Arenas
Las Arenas is a neighbourhood of Getxo . It is an affluent residential area that was built over the sands of a beach where the Gobela creek died in a diffuse delta at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao in the early 20th century.It is connected to Portugalete, at the other side of the firth by the...
(Spanish for "The Sands") was built. Near Areeta / Las Arenas, on the other side of the road to Bilbao, there grew a working-class district called Romo, similar to the one that grew near Neguri: Neguri Langile. Finally, in the 20th century, urban development reached the rural areas of Santa María de Getxo
Getxoko Andra Mari
Santa María de Getxo is one of the five districts that are comprised by the municipality of Getxo, Biscay, Basque Country in the north of Spain....
.
Getxo, as well as the surrounding area known as Uribe-Kosta
Uribe-Kosta
Uribe-Kosta is a modern conventional division of the Basque province of Biscay. It includes part of the coastal strip of the historical division of Uribealdea. The division is used for statistical and electoral purposes. It includes the following...
, grew rapidly in the last decades of the 20th century. While in the early 80s the town had only 50,000 inhabitants, it has now more than 83,000. The surrounding towns of Leioa
Leioa
Leioa is a municipality in Biscay, Basque Country, in northern Spain. Today it is part of the Bilbao conurbation, and it is the name of a metro station in the Bilbao metro...
, Berango
Berango
Berango is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, Basque Country-External links:*...
and Sopelana
Sopelana
Sopelana is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain....
have also seen multiplied their population in the same period.
Getxo was hit by the Basque Conflict
Basque conflict
The Basque conflict, also known as the Spain–ETA conflict, was an armed conflict between the Spanish state, France and the Basque National Liberation Movement, a group of social and political Basque organizations which seeked independence from Spain and France...
several times, with the town being place of many ETA attacks, such as the car bomb attack on May 19, 2008
2008 Getxo bombing
The 2008 Getxo bombing occurred on May 19, 2008, when a van bomb went off outside a boat club in the town of Getxo, Biscay in the Basque Country, Spain. The attack caused serious damage to the club, as well as nearby buildings and structures. No one was killed or injured after a warning call from...
. Many activists of the organisation have been born in Getxo, such as Arkaitz Goikoetxea
Arkaitz Goikoetxea
Arkaitz Goikoetxea Basabe is a member of the Basque separatist organisation ETA. He began his violent activity at the age of 15 as a member of the street violence groups known as kale borroka...
.
Administration
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque National Party is the largest and oldest Basque nationalist party. It is currently the largest political party in the Basque Autonomous Community also with a minor presence in Navarre and a marginal one in the French Basque Country...
(EAJ-PNV) since democracy was restored in 1978 (Local Elections). Since 1991, the major opposition party has been the Partido Popular
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
. Other parties represented on the Town Council are the Socialist Party of Euskadi (PSE-EE
Socialist Party of Euskadi - Euskadiko Ezkerra
The Socialist Party of the Basque Country – Basque Country Left is the Basque affiliate of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. Although local socialist groups had been active since 1886, and many affiliated with the PSOE , the PSE was actually established as a branch of the main party only in...
) and the United Left (IU)
United Left (Spain)
The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain...
.
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Political party !! Votes !! % votes !!town councillors
|-
|EAJ-PNV || 14 182 || 32,92 % || 10
|-
|PP
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
|| 12 978 || 30,13 % || 9
|-
|Bildu
Bildu
Bildu is a Basque nationalist, separatist and abertzale leftist political coalition active in the Basque Country and Navarre. It was official launched on 3 April 2011...
|| 7 048 || 16,36% || 4
|-
|PSE-EE || 4 170 || 9,68 % || 2
|-
|IU
United Left (Spain)
The United Left is a political coalition that was organized in 1986 bringing together several political organisations opposed to Spain joining NATO. It was formed by a number of groups of leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but was dominated by the Communist Party of Spain...
|| 1 067 || 2,48 % || 0
|-
Getxo has five different districts, which serve administrative and electoral purposes: Algorta
Algorta
Algorta is a locality within the municipality of Getxo, in the province of Biscay, Basque Country, Spain. In 1996, the population of Algorta was 35,600....
, Las Arenas
Las Arenas
Las Arenas is a neighbourhood of Getxo . It is an affluent residential area that was built over the sands of a beach where the Gobela creek died in a diffuse delta at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao in the early 20th century.It is connected to Portugalete, at the other side of the firth by the...
, Romo
Romo
Romantic Modernism, more commonly known as Romo, was a musical and clubbing movement, of Glam/style pop lineage, in the UK circa 1995–1997, centred around the twin homes of Camden-based clubnight Club Skinny and its West End clone Arcadia, as well as concerts by the chief associated bands.The Romo...
, Santa María de Getxo
Getxoko Andra Mari
Santa María de Getxo is one of the five districts that are comprised by the municipality of Getxo, Biscay, Basque Country in the north of Spain....
and Neguri
Neguri
Neguri is an affluent district of Getxo, in Biscay, Basque Country. It is traditionally regarded as the residence of the prosperous Basque industrial bourgeoisie. Its name, coined in the 19th century, means Winter Town in Basque language....
.
Transport and Tourism
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...
using the city's modern underground Metro system
Metro Bilbao
Metro Bilbao is a rapid transit system serving the city of Bilbao and the region of Greater Bilbao. Its lines have a "Y" shape, with two lines that transit both banks of the Nervión river and then combine to form one line that ends in the south of Bilbao...
, which has 5 stations in the town. Getxo is also accessible from Portugalete
Portugalete
Portugalete is a town lying to the west of Bilbao in the province of Biscay in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain.The town has 51,066 inhabitants and is part of Bilbao's metropolitan area. It is located at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao, on the left bank...
, by means of the Puente Colgante
Puente Colgante
The Vizcaya Bridge , is a transporter bridge that links the towns of Portugalete and Las Arenas in the Biscay province of Spain, crossing the mouth of the Nervion River....
transporter bridge
Transporter bridge
A transporter bridge is a type of movable bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. The gondola is slung from a tall span by wires or a metal frame. The design has been used to cross navigable rivers or other bodies of water, where there is a requirement for ship traffic to be...
. The ferry Pride of Bilbao
Pride of Bilbao
MS "Princess Anastasia" is a cruiseferry owned by St. Peter Line. Until September 2010, she was known as "Pride of Bilbao", operated by P&O Ferries on their Portsmouth–Bilbao route. The vessel was built in 1986 as the Olympia by the Wärtsilä shipyard in Turku, Finland for Rederi AB Slite, Sweden...
reaches Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
from Getxo's neighbour Santurce
Santurtzi
Santurtzi is a port town in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, Spain. It is located in the Bilbao Abra bay, near the mouth of the Nervión river, on its left bank, 14km downriver from Bilbao and forms part of the Greater Bilbao agglomeration...
, and Bilbao Airport
Bilbao Airport
Bilbao Airport is a public airport located north of Bilbao, in the municipality of Loiu, in the Basque Country. It is the most important airport of the Basque Country and northern Spain, with 4,172,903 passengers on 2008...
is also not far away in Loiu
Loiu
Loiu is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain.The new Bilbao Airport terminal has been built within the municipality limits.-External links:*...
(Lujua in Spanish).
Getxo has some tourist appeal with easy access to several beaches, and to the regional economic capital of Bilbao. It has a yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
harbour, a golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
, and several sports complexes (both public and private). A dynamic, semi-autonomous Department of Culture organises many events on a regular basis, including several international music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
s given over to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
.
The town has many houses of architectural interest, including the Town Hall and several churches, as well as private dwellings belonging to members of the wealthy industrialist class of Biscay. The Old Harbour district of Algorta and several parks with views across to the bay called the Bilbao Abra
Bilbao Abra
The Bilbao Abra is a bay of the Bay of Biscay, in the Atlantic Ocean, that is located at the mouth of the Estuary of Bilbao, in Biscay . The bay is delimited by the capes of Punta Galea to the north and Punta Lucero to the south...
are also worth a visit.
Sport
The Arenas Club de GetxoArenas Club de Getxo
Arenas Club de Getxo is a Spanish football club based in the town of Getxo, near Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1914, it currently plays in Tercera División, holding home games at Campo Municipal de Gobela, with a 1,200-seat capacity.It was among the pioneering...
football team is based in Getxo, and took part in the first ever
La Liga 1929
The 1929 Primera División season started February 10, 1929 and finished June 23, 1929. A total of 10 teams participated in the league.- Team Information :-Standings:-Relegation play-off:...
national Spanish football league
La Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
season.
Getxo Artea
Getxo Artea RT
Getxo Artea Rugby Taldea is a Spanish rugby union club. The club currently competes in the División de Honor de Rugby competition, the 1st level of Spanish club rugby. The club are based in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain...
is the local rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
team and play in the División de Honor
División de Honor de Rugby
-Past winners:-External links:*...
.