Leganés () is a city in the
Community of Madrid
The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...
, Spain. Considered part of the
Madrid metropolitan area, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
. , 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 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' ...
. It covers an area of 43.09 km
2 and it is located at 667 m over sea level.
Leganés houses a branch of the
Universidad Carlos III. It is connected to Madrid via the ''
Cercanías'' (train,
line C5), and ''
Metrosur'', one of the lines of
Metro. 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 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 ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
, 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 List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
. Sold by the Crown, it became a
''mayorazgo'' in 1626.
Administration
Mayors
Throughout most of its modern democratic history, the municipality of Leganés has been ruled by the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party of the Community of Madrid, belonging to the so-called "
red belt" of the region. Only during part of 2007, 2011-2015 and again since 2023 the city has been ruled by the
People's Party of the Community of Madrid.
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, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...
and
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
. 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, 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, who advanced to the La Liga division after receiving automatic promotion after winning their first
Segunda title.. 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
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...
, 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. 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 (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...
.
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, Greece (1980)
*
Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba (1995)
*
Conchalí, Chile
*
La Güera, Western Sahara (2001)
*
Macará, Ecuador (2008)
*
Papel Pampa, Bolivia
*
Somoto, Nicaragua (1998)
Notable births
*
Dani Carvajal
*
Huecco
*
Javier Illana
*
José María Movilla
*
Carlos Sastre
*
Jorge Martín
References
External links
Leganés City HallUniversity Carlos III of MadridLeganés at Google Maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leganes
Municipalities in the Community of Madrid