Loiu ( es, Lujua) is a town and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

located in the province of

Biscay Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao. ...

, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

The

Bilbao Airport Bilbao Airport is a minor international airport located north of Bilbao, in the municipality of Loiu, in Biscay. It is the largest airport in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country and northern Spain, with 5,469,453 passenge ...

terminal lies within the municipality limits.

Geography

Loiu is located in the Asua Valley, with Derio lying to the East and

Erandio Erandio is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, northern Spain. The name comes from euskera ARANDIO that means plu ...

to the West.

Composition

A big part of the population is dispersed around country farmhouses (called ''baserri'' or ''caseríos''). The main neighbourhood is ''Zabaloetxe'', where the church is located. Other urban areas are Elochelerri (in Basque ''Elotxelerri''), on the way to Asua Valley ( BI-637), next to the airport, and Lauros (''Lauro'').

Airport

Since the most recent expansion of

, many of its facilities including the passenger terminal are located within the municipality.

Toponym

In Euskera, the town is officially called Loiu. In Spanish, the town is called Lujua. The old name of the town was ''Luxua'', but it was converted into Spanish after the phonetic evolution of x/ j (around 17th century) in ''Lujua'' (paralleling the change ''Xerez'' -> ''Jerez''). In Euskera, the phonetic evolution of the toponym was different: when the ''-a'' ending was lost, phoneme ''x'' evolved in a different way to the Spanish language ''y'', and the variation of the tonic syllable ''lu'' for ''lo''. That is ''Luxu(a)'' -> ''Lu(x)u'' -> ''L(u)iu'' -> ''Loiu''.

Euskaltzaindia Euskaltzaindia (; often translated Royal Academy of the Basque Language) is the official academic language regulatory institution which watches over the Basque language. It conducts research, seeks to protect the language, and establishes stand ...

adopted ''Loiu'' as the official form of the name.. Loiu adopted its official name in 1983.

References

External links