Autonomous communities of Spain
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Spain is divided in 17 parts called autonomous communities. Autonomous means that each of these autonomous communities has its own Executive Power, its own Legislative Power and its own Judicial Power. These are similar, but NOT the same, to states in the United States of America, for example.
Spain has fifty smaller parts called provinces. In 1978 these parts came together, making the autonomous communities. Before then, some of these provinces were together but were broken. The groups that were together once before are called "historic communities": Galicia, País Vasco and Cataluña. These communities have 2 official languages: Spanish and their own language (gallego or eusquera or catalán).
List of the autonomous communities, with their Capital city (the place where the government has its offices):
- Andalucía (its capital is Sevilla)
- Aragón (its capital is Zaragoza)
- Asturias (its capital is Oviedo)
- Islas Baleares (its capital is Palma de Mallorca)
- País Vasco (its capital is Vitoria)
- Islas Canarias (it has two capitals - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
- Cantabria (its capital is Santander)
- Castilla-La Mancha (its capital is Toledo)
- Castilla y León (its capital is Valladolid)
- Cataluña (its capital is Barcelona)
- Extremadura (its capital is Mérida)
- Galicia (its capital is Santiago de Compostela)
- La Rioja (its capital is Logroño)
- Madrid (its capital is Madrid)
- Murcia (its capital is Murcia)
- Navarra (its capital is Pamplona)
- Comunidad Valenciana (its capital is Valencia)
Spain also has two cities on the north coast of Africa: Ceuta and Melilla. They are called "autonomous cities".
