Gava

Municipality of Gavà
	Ermita de Bruguers
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Catalonia
Province :	Barcelona
Comarca :	Baix Llobregat
Coordinates	41 ° 18 ′ N , 2 ° 0 ′ E Coordinates: 41 ° 18 ′ N , 2 ° 0 ′ E
Height :	9 msnm
Area :	30.89 km²
Residents :	46,771 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	1,514.11 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	08850
Municipality number ( INE ):	08089
administration
Official language :	Castilian , Catalan
Mayor :	Joaquim Balsera García
Website :	www.gavaciutat.cat

Gava beach

Gavà [ gəˈβɑ ] (Spanish Gavá ) is a Catalan city in the province of Barcelona in northeastern Spain . It is in the comarca of Baix Llobregat . Gavà belongs to the metropolitan area Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona .

Location and climate

Gavà is to the right of the Llobregat in the metropolitan area of Barcelona . The climate is Mediterranean with hot summers and little rainfall; but this concentrated on spring and autumn.

history

The linguist Joan Coromines derives the place name from the Latin proper name Gavius . In medieval documents the place Gavano (1002) and Gevanum (1011) is mentioned. The current name is already documented in 1131.

The first mention of 1002 concerns the donation of an allod (property right) in Gavano to a monastery. The settlement of Gavà was part of the castle district and later Barony Eramprunyà . The castle belonged to the Counts of Barcelona , until 1323 the reigning Count and King of Aragon, Jaume II , handed over the barony to the royal chamberlain, Pere Marc . The barony included the places, castles and parishes of Castelldefels , Begues , Sant Climent de Llobregat , Viladecans , Gavà and Sant Boi de Llobregat . In 1449 the barony passed from the Marc family to the Fiveller de Palou family .

Culture

The Festa Major takes place in Sant Pere (June 29th) and lasts four days. On December 14th, another festival honors Sant Nicari , who, according to legend, freed the town from the plague.

Economy and Transport

Gavà is directly connected to Barcelona by the expressway from Castelldefels . Since 1881 the city has had a train station on the Barcelona - Vilanova i la Geltrú line

Agriculture was of great importance in the second half of the 18th century. Artichokes , salads , spinach and asparagus are still grown on around 400 hectares of fertile sandy soil .

Industrialization began in Gavà in the 20th century. In 1909 the place was electrified, and in 1917 the Roca i Soler family founded a ceramics factory, which quickly developed under the name Roca Sanitario into the leading Spanish manufacturer of sanitary ware to this day. The company's need for workers was crucial for the further development of the city. Mainly due to immigrants from Murcia and Aragon , the population increased to over 5,000 by 1930. In the following years, other branches of industry settled in the place. Today steel construction and the chemical industry play the most important role. It is still Roca one of the largest employers in the city. In total there are around a hundred industrial companies with around 5,000 employees in Gavà today.

Tourism has also played an important role since the 1960s. The city's coastline stretches for four kilometers from the La Murtra nature reserve in the east to La Pineda de la Marina in the west.

sons and daughters of the town

Ángel Edo (* 1970), racing cyclist
Antoni Lima Solà (* 1970), football player
Candela Peña (* 1973), actress
Víctor Valdés (* 1982), football goalkeeper

Town twinning

Valencia Olocau (Region of Valencia) since July 1, 2006

Since the beginning of the 20th century, many people from the Valencian municipality of Olocau, which has a poor infrastructure (today around 2000 inhabitants) have migrated to the up-and-coming Gavà to work, initially in a broom factory, later mainly at Roca Sanitario . Even after many years, family and friendly relationships between the people of both places are firm.

Individual evidence

↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).

Web links

Commons : Gavà - collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).