Leganés
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Leganés () is a city in the
Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; es, Comunidad de Madrid ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and of the Central Plateau (''Meseta Central''). Its capital and largest munici ...
, Spain. Considered part of the
Madrid metropolitan area The Madrid metropolitan area is a monocentric metropolitan area in the centre of the Iberian peninsula, around the municipality of Madrid, Spain. It is not related to any sort of administrative delimitation, and thus, its limits are ambiguous. ...
, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. , it has a population of 188,425, making it the region's fifth most populated
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. It covers an area of 43.09 km2 and it is located at 667 m over sea level. Leganés houses a branch of the
Universidad Carlos III University Charles III of Madrid ( es, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) (UC3M) is a public university in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Established in 1989, UC3M is an institution with a distinctly international profile. It offers a broad rang ...
. It is connected to Madrid via the ''
Cercanías The commuter rail systems of Spain's major metropolitan areas are called ''Cercanías'' () in most of Spain, ''Rodalia'' () in the Valencian Community, ''Aldiriak'' () in the Basque Country and ''Rodalies'' () in Catalonia. There are twelve ''Ce ...
'' (train, line C5), and ''
Metrosur Line 12, also known as MetroSur (Spanish for ''MetroSouth''), is a line of the Madrid Metro inaugurated on 11 April 2003. Line 12 is a circle line that is not in the city of Madrid, but links five suburban towns south of Madrid, serving around on ...
'', one of the lines of
Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
. Leganés has 6 Metrosur stations. On 3 April 2004 five of the suspects in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks blew themselves up in an apartment building in the city as police moved in to arrest them. All five were killed, along with one
GEO Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”. GEO or Geo may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...
police officer.


Etymology

''Leganés'' is described in the 16th century annals as a corruption of ''Leganar''. The latter supposedly makes reference to the abundance of ''légamo'' (slime) in the area in ancient times.


Geography

The city is located in the central part of the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, at roughly 667 metres above sea level. The urban core is surrounded by motorways, including: M-40, A-42, R-5, M-45 and the M-50.


History

The founding of the settlement has been tentatively traced back to circa 1280. Throughout the Middle Ages, it remained a small hamlet, of which little information has transcended. By the 16th century it was part of the Land of
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. Sold by the Crown, it became a ''mayorazgo'' in 1626.


Sports and leisure

The city has a wide range of shops and family centres, especially surrounding the area of Parquesur. All of the neighborhoods have at least two big parks for recreation. The city is well known for the quality of its restaurants, most of them located in the downtown area or near parks like La Chopera. The "Pista de Hielo" is a normal-size ice skating rink that trains people from all around Madrid in
figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...
and
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
. It is also the venue for the Leganés ice hockey team. Along with the "Pista de Hielo", there are ten sports centres in the city (Polideportivo Europa, Los Frailes,
Alfredo Di Stéfano Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given name include: *Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Fil ...
, Olimpia, Butarque, La Cantera). These centres have many facilities including basketball fields, football fields, athletics fields, gymnasiums, saunas, swimming pools and many others. The city team is the Club Deportivo Leganés, currently playing in
Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...
. Football is the most played sport in Leganés; Leganés being the second city after Madrid in terms of federated clubs in the Autonomous Community of Madrid. Leganés also has an Official Languages School, in which the residents of the city can study English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, or even Spanish (adapted for immigrants). The taxes of the school are paid by the Government of Madrid so that the residents only pay a single fee of €250 a year for any of the languages. There are special discounts to students that study more than one language at the same time and for families that have more than one person studying at it as well. Some of the neighborhoods also have a cultural centre (San Nicasio, Centro, Zarzaquemada, El Carrascal).


Public health care

The main hospital of Leganés is the Severo Ochoa Hospital, and there are many health care centres in each neighborhood. The city stands out for its research in mental illnesses. There is also one public orphanage, one retirement home and one centre dedicated to the disabled.


Culture

The Museum of Sculpture in is an open-air museum that contains a collection of large-format sculptures that brings together prominent representatives of Spanish sculpture from the twentieth century to the present day.s. It was officially inaugurated in September 2005, by the Minister of Culture,
Carmen Calvo María del Carmen Calvo Poyato (born 9 June 1957) is a Spanish politician and author who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Minister of the Presidency from 2018 to 2021. Born and raised in Cabra, Spain, she attended the University ...
. Some of the works come from the Prado Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Leganés has a street named ''AC/DC'' in honor of the Australian rock band. The band visited Leganés in order to inaugurate the street. The street sign was frequently stolen until the council decided to paint it on the wall instead of replacing the sign over and over again. There is also a street in Leganés named after the rock band
Scorpions Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...
. Parquesur, in Leganés, built in the early 1990s is currently one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe. It was completely refurbished and extended in 2005.


Climate


Twin towns – sister cities

Leganés is twinned with: *
Aigaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( el, Αιγάλεω ) is a suburban municipality in the western part of Athens, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo. Its population was 69,946 at the 2011 census. G ...
, Greece (1980) * Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba (1995) *
Conchalí Conchalí () is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. It is a northwestern suburb of Santiago. Demographics According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Conchalí spans an area of ...
, Chile *
La Güera La Güera ( ar, الڭويرة ''al-Gūwayra''; also known as ''La Agüera'', ''Lagouira'', ''El Gouera'') is a ghost town on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of Western Sahara, on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula which i ...
, Western Sahara (2001) * Macará, Ecuador (2008) * Papel Pampa, Bolivia *
Somoto Somoto () is a city and a municipality located in the hills of northern Nicaragua, and capital of the department of Madriz. It is around 20 km (12 miles) south-west of Ocotal and 51 km (32 miles) north-west of Estelí. It sits on the ...
, Nicaragua (1998)


Notable residents

* John of Austria *
Dani Carvajal Daniel "Dani" Carvajal Ramos (; born 11 January 1992) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right back for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Spain national team. Having risen through the Real Madrid youth ranks, he spent a sea ...
*
Huecco Iván Sevillano Pérez (Plasencia, 1974), ''alias'' Huecco, is a Spanish singer. He grew up in Madrid ( Aluche) and Leganés. He did Media Studies Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effec ...
* Javier Illana *
José María Movilla José María Movilla Cubero (born 8 February 1975) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played mainly as a central midfielder. He played 299 La Liga matches in exactly ten seasons, representing mainly Zaragoza and retiring at 39. ...
* José Luis Pérez Caminero * Joel Robles *
Carlos Sastre Carlos Sastre Candil (; born 22 April 1975) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer and winner of the 2008 Tour de France. He consistently achieved outstanding results in the Vuelta a España and in the Tour de France. Sastre establi ...


References


External links


Leganés City HallUniversity Carlos III of MadridLeganés at Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leganes Municipalities in the Community of Madrid