Corunna

Corunna is the traditional English name of the city of A Coruña in Spain and the surrounding Province of A Coruña.

Corunna may also refer to:

See also

Province of A Coruña

The province of A Coruña (Spanish: La Coruña, pronounced: [la koˈɾuɲa], and Corunna in English) is the most North-western Atlantic-facing province of Spain, and one of the four provinces which constitute the autonomous community of Galicia. This province is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and North, Pontevedra Province to the South and the Lugo Province to the East.

History

The history of this province starts at the end of the Middle Ages during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. During those years this province was far smaller than today. This is because in the 1833 territorial division of Spain the entire Province of Betanzos together with half of the Mondoñedo were amalgamated into one single province with its capital city in A Coruña. That was going to be the beginning of a love hate relationship between the major cities caught in between: Ferrol, Santiago de Compostela and A Coruña. Due to this unusual situation, the dioceses of these parts of Galicia do not match any longer with the administrative divisions. In addition, the capital city of the province has never had a cathedral, but both Ferrol and Santiago de Compostela have one. The City of Santiago de Compostela is not the provincial capital, but has always been the capital of Galicia and historically a rival to Toledo for being the most important city in Spain ecclesiastically speaking.

A Coruña

A Coruña (Galician: [a koˈɾuɲa] official name, Spanish: La Coruña pronounced: [la koˈɾuɲa], English: Corunna) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country. The city is the provincial capital of the province of the same name, having also served as political capital of the Kingdom of Galicia from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and as a regional administrative centre between 1833 and 1982, before being replaced by Santiago de Compostela.

A Coruña is a busy port located on a promontory in the entrance of an estuary in a large gulf (the Portus Magnus Artabrorum of the classical geographers) on the Atlantic Ocean. It provides a distribution point for agricultural goods from the region.

Name

In English, use of the Spanish or Galician forms now predominates. However, the traditional form Corunna /kəˈrʌnə/ can still be found, particularly in reference to the Battle of Corunna in the Peninsular War. Archaically, the city was known as The Groyne, probably from French "La Corogne", although this name could also be as much a geographical description given the city occupies a small peninsula protruding out into the Atlantic. In Spain, currently the only official form of the name is the Galician one, "A Coruña". Nonetheless, the Spanish form, La Coruña, is still widespread, and it is the traditional name in Spanish recommended by the Real Academia Española for texts in Spanish. Certain groups of people have advocated elevating the reintegrationist spelling "A Corunha" to official status, pointing to the provisions of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and claiming that it is unconstitutional to stipulate use of the Real Academia Galega spelling, but have not been successful so far.