Getxo | ||
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Municipality | ||
Getxo from Vizcaya Bridge with its neighborhood of Las Arenas in the foreground
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Motto: Kaltea Dagianak Bizarra Lepoan ("He who makes evil, the beard at his back") |
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Location of Getxo within the Basque Country | ||
Coordinates: 43°20′39″N 3°0′23″W / 43.34417°N 3.00639°WCoordinates: 43°20′39″N 3°0′23″W / 43.34417°N 3.00639°W | ||
Country | Spain | |
Autonomous community | Basque Country | |
Province | Biscay | |
Comarca | Greater Bilbao | |
Judicial district | Getxo | |
Districts | Aiboa,Algorta, Las Arenas, Neguri, Romo and Getxoko Andra Mari | |
Founded | 1075 | |
Government | ||
• Alcalde | Imanol Landa (2007) (PNV) | |
Area | ||
• Total | 11.89 km2 (4.59 sq mi) | |
Elevation | 50 m (160 ft) | |
Population (2014) | ||
• Total | 79,544 | |
• Density | 6,700/km2 (17,000/sq mi) | |
Demonym(s) | Getxotarra | |
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |
Postal code | 48991 - 48993 - 48990 - 48930 | |
Website | www |
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 Greater Bilbao, and has about 80,000 inhabitants (2014). Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the third largest municipality of Biscay.
Getxo (formerly spelt Guecho) was a parish (elizatea, anteiglesia'), 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 "Who makes evil, the beard at the 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 Erromo, similar to the one that grew near Neguri: Neguri Langile. Finally, in the 20th century, urban development reached the rural areas of Getxoko Andra Mari.
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 1980s the town had only 50,000 inhabitants, it has now more than 83,000. The surrounding towns of Leioa, Berango and Sopelana have also multiplied their population in the same period.