Vigo

Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the Ria de Vigo, the southernmost of the Rías Baixas.

The municipality, with an area of and a population of 299,321 on June 15, 2022 including rural parishes, is the most populous municipality in Galicia. The area of the municipality includes the Cíes Islands, part of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park.

Vigo is one of the region's primary economic agents, owing to the French Stellantis Vigo Plant and to its port. Close to the Portugal–Spain border, Vigo is part of the Galicia–North Portugal Euroregion. The European Fisheries Control Agency is headquartered in Vigo.

History

In the Early Middle Ages, the small village of Vigo was part of the territory of Galician-speaking neighbouring towns, particularly Tui, and suffered several Viking attacks. However, its number of inhabitants was so small that, historically, it was not considered a real villa until around the 15th century, when the earliest records began.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city was attacked several times. In 1585 and 1589, during an unsuccessful attack by the English counter-Armada, Francis Drake raided the city and temporarily occupied it, burning many buildings. Several decades later a Turkish fleet tried to attack the city. As a result, the city's walls were built in 1656 in the reign of Philip IV of Spain. They are still partially preserved.

At this time, and in spite of the attacks, Vigo developed its earliest commerce and was given several privileges by the kings of Spain.

In 1702, the Battle of Vigo Bay occurred, and in 1719, because a Spanish fleet which departed from Vigo attempted to invade Scotland in support of the Jacobites, the city was occupied for ten days by a British force.

In 1808, the French Army annexed Spain to the Napoleonic Empire, although Vigo remained unconquered until January, 1809. Vigo was also the first city of Galicia to be freed from French rule, in what is annually celebrated on March 28 as the ''Reconquista'' (reconquest from the French in the context of the Peninsular War). In 1833, the city of Pontevedra was designated the provincial capital of the province of Pontevedra, within which lies Vigo.

Vigo grew very rapidly in the 20th century, thanks to the fact that the Franco government granted it a tax-free zone in 1947 allowing companies to be set up there for free, as well as an Industrial Development Pole in 1964, a very unusual case for a non-capital of a Spanish province. Continuous urban-planning changes left Vigo less structured than other Galician cities such as Pontevedra and A Coruña.

Toponym

Vigo's urban area is built on both a hill-fort (''Castro'') and a Roman settlement. It is generally accepted that the name Vigo is derived from the Latin word ''vicus spacorum'', meaning "small village".

The standard pronunciation of Vigo in both Galician and Spanish is .

Vigo has been given the nickname ''cidade olívica'' (city of olives). It is said that, after the conflict between Isabel de Castilla and Juana la Beltraneja - where Galician nobility fought for the latter - the victor ordered all of Galicia's olive trees to be cut down, as they symbolized peace. The tree in Vigo however, couldn't be uprooted as it was planted in sacred ground. The tree is represented in the city seal, and a descendant of it is still alive in Vigo's city centre.

Geography

Location

To the northeast, Vigo borders the municipality of Redondela; to the east, Mos; to the south, O Porriño and Gondomar; and to the southwest, Nigrán. On the other side of the bay are the municipalities of Cangas and Moaña.

Climate

Vigo has a transitional climate between the oceanic climate "''Cfb''" and the warm-summer Mediterranean climate "''Csb''" according to the Köppen climate classification. Although Vigo is the rainiest city in Galicia, with its noticeable drying trend in the summer, Vigo's climate is more similar to the variant of the oceanic climate commonly seen in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The average annual temperature in Vigo is . Compared to many other Galician towns, Vigo and Pontevedra experience warmer summer temperatures than A Coruña or Santiago de Compostela and milder winters than inland areas. This is due to its sheltered location, surrounded by mountains and the Illas Cíes out in the bay towards the sea. The all-time record high for the city is set on August 7, 2016. Vigo is known for its extreme rainfall in winter. December 1978 saw fall at the weather station in a single month. During that month on 7th December, fell on a single day. Normal values for 1981-2010 was falling on just 129.2 days indicating heavy rain to be common. The airport where values are taken is located further inland at a considerably higher elevation () than the city itself located at the coastline in the Ria de Vigo estuary, which is likely warmer year-round.

Demographics

The municipality of Vigo had 293,642 inhabitants in 2018 (198,537 in the city) with an extended metropolitan population of 478,508, in the southern part of the province of Pontevedra making it Spain's 14th-largest metropolitan area.

In 2020 - according to the data provided by the INE on 1 January 2020 - it had a population of 482,858 inhabitants in total, of which 296,692 lived in the municipality of Vigo, which represented 61.44% of the total population of the metropolitan area.In 2019, 15,319 foreigners lived in the city, 5.2% of the total population. The main nationalities are Portuguese (12%), Venezuelans (9.2%), Brazilians (9%), Romanians (7.5%), Colombians (6.5%), Senegalese (4%) and Chinese people (3%).

By language, according to 2013 data, 7.68% of the population spoke exclusively in Galician, and 51.39% in Spanish; 11.38% spoke in Galician more often than Spanish, and 29.55% more often in Spanish than Galician. This made Vigo the least Galician-speaking city in Galicia.

The creation of Vigo Metropolitan Area was approved in 2016 and, in addition to Vigo, it originally accounted for the following 13 municipalities: Baiona, Cangas, Fornelos de Montes, Gondomar, Moaña, Mos, Nigrán, Pazos de Borbén, O Porriño, Redondela, Salceda de Caselas, Salvaterra de Miño and Soutomaior. It has been however suspended since its creation. The European Union's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy assigns Vigo a wider functional urban area (FUA), with 21 municipalities and a population of 541,000 inhabitants.

Government and administration

Vigo is a municipality, the basic level of local government in Spain. The Ayuntamiento (''concello'' in Galician) is the body charged with the municipal government and administration. The Plenary of the ''concello'' is formed by 27 elected municipal councillors, who in turn invest the mayor.

The last municipal election took place on 26 May 2019, leading to a plenary formed by 20 councillors from the Socialists' Party of Galicia–PSOE, 4 from the People's Party, 2 from the Marea de Vigo and 1 from the Galician Nationalist Bloc. The current mayor is Abel Caballero (Spanish Socialist Workers Party), who has won four mandates in a row since becoming mayor in 2007.

Parishes

Vigo is administratively divided into 23 ''parroquias'' ("parishes").

# Alcabre: Ameixeira, Barreiro, Carregal, Castañal, Cristo, Forte, Gándara, Igrexa, Pardaíña, Roade, Sobreira, Viñagrande
# Beade: Babio, Balde, Carballo do Pazo, Coutada, Gándara, Porto, A Pena, Quintián, O Seixo, A Venda, Sáa
# Bembrive: Baruxans, Carballal, Chans, Xestoso, Mosteiro, Outeiro, San Cibrán, Segade, Areeiro, Eifonso, Mouteira, Recaré, Xesteira
# Bouzas
# Cabral: Becerreira, Carballal, Sello, Figueiras
# Candeán: Igrexa, Candeán de Arriba, Rabadeira, Fonte Oscura
# Castrelos

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