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A Coruña (Galician: [ɐ koˈɾuɲɐ] ; Spanish: La Coruña [la koˈɾuɲa] ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province of A Coruña, having also served as political capital of the Kingdom of Galicia from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and as a regional administrative centre between 1833 and 1982. A Coruña is located on a promontory in the Golfo Ártabro, a large gulf on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the main industrial and financial centre of northern Galicia, and holds the headquarters of the Universidade da Coruña. A Coruña is the Spanish city featuring the tallest mean-height of buildings, also featuring a population density of 21,972 inhabitants per square kilometre (56,910/sq mi) of built land area. Name Origin There is no clear evidence as to what the name derives from. It seems to be from Crunia, of unknown origin and meaning, documented for the first time at the time of Ferdinand II of León (reigned 1157–1188). As usual in Galician-Portuguese (as well as in Castilian Spanish), the cluster ni naturally evolved into the sound [ɲ], written n, nn or nh in old Galician orthography, nn in Spanish (later abbreviated to ñ, like the original Latin cluster "nn"), and nh in Portuguese and alternative Galician spelling. "A" is the Galician-Portuguese article equivalent to English the; compare Castilian Spanish la ("the"). One proposed etymology derives Crunia from Cluny, the town in France. During its height (c. 950 – c. 1130) the Cluniac religious movement became very prominent in Europe. There is another town named Coruña in Burgos Province. A more likely possibility is that the name simply means "The Crown", which in Galician is A Coroa and in Spanish is La Corona. It seems less likely that it traces back to the Galician clunia. The name is reputedly from the Greek Κορώνα (Crown), referring to the crown of Geryon that was buried by Hercules under the lighthouse he built to his honour. The hero Hercules slew the giant tyrant Geryon after three days and three nights of continuous battle. Hercules then—in a Celtic gesture—buried the head of Geryon with his weapons and ordered that a city be built on the site. The lighthouse atop a skull and crossbones representing the buried head of Hercules' slain enemy appears in the coat-of-arms of the city of A Coruña, Loukeris (2019). A proxy evolution within the Portuguese language points out to the Latin word Colonya as its origin, where the L was transformed into R which occurs widely in Portuguese. A similar happening can be found today in Coronie, a Surinamese town which also made its course outside the Portuguese system. A folk etymology incorrectly derives Coruña from the ancient columna, or Tower of Hercules. Use In English, use of the Spanish or Galician forms now predominates. However, the traditional English form Corunna can persist, particularly in reference to the Battle of Corunna (1809) in the Peninsular War. Archaically, English-speakers knew the city as "The Groyne", probably from French La Corogne. In Spain, the official form of the name is now the Galician one: "A Coruña", though many Spaniards continue to use "La Coruña". Geography A Coruña is located on a peninsula, and its isthmus was at times formed only by a small strip of sand. Erosion and sea currents caused a progressive accumulation of sand, enlarging it to its present dimensions. Climate A Coruña has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb) in the Köppen climate classification. Autumn is usually mild with spring-like temperatures, but winter is often unsettled and unpredictable, with strong winds and abundant rainfall coming from Atlantic depressions. The ocean keeps temperatures mild all year round (the variation between winter and summer temperatures is only 9 °C (16 °F) on average) and therefore frost and snow are extremely rare. In fact, the city has not received significant snowfall since January 1987. A Coruña lies in plant hardiness zone 10b. Spring is usually warm and fairly calm, while summers are mostly sunny and humid, with occasional rainfall, usually in the form of drizzle; high temperatures are warm but rarely uncomfortably hot because of the sea's cooling influence during the day, most often being around 22 °C (72 °F) between July and September. Even the warmest month on record was relatively subdued, being August 2003, with an average high temperature of 25 °C (77 °F). Temperatures above 25 °C (77 °F) occur many days in the summer, while temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) are infrequent. Administrative divisions Parishes A Coruña has five parishes, or parroquias: A Coruña, San Vicente de Elviña, Santa María de Oza, San Cristóbal das Viñas, and San Pedro de Visma. Districts History Prehistory A Coruña spread from the peninsula, the site of the later Tower of Hercules, onto the mainland. The oldest part, known popularly in Galician as Cidade Vella (Old City), Cidade Alta (High City) or the Cidade (City), is built on an ancient Celtic castro. It was supposedly inhabited by the Brigantes and Artabrians, the Celtic tribes of the area. Roman times The Romans came to the region in the 2nd century BCE; they made the most of the strategic position and soon the city became quite important in maritime trade. In 62 BCE Julius Caesar came to the city (known at the time as Brigantium) in pursuit of the metal trade, establishing commerce with what are now France, England and Portugal. The town began to grow, mainly during the 1st and 2nd centuries (when the Farum Brigantium Tower of Hercules was built), but declined after the 4th century and particularly with the incursions of the Vikings, which forced the population to flee towards the interior of the Estuary of O Burgo. Middle Ages After the fall of the Roman Empire, A Coruña still had a commercial port connected to foreign countries, but contacts with the Mediterranean were slowly replaced by a more Atlantic-oriented focus. The process of deurbanisation that followed the fall of the Roman Empire also affected A Coruña. Between the 7th and 8th centuries, the city was no more than a little village of labourers and sailors. The 11th-century Chronica iriense names Faro do Burgo (ancient name of A Coruña) as one of the dioceses that king Miro granted to the episcopate of Iria Flavia in the year 572: Mirus Rex Sedi suae Hiriensi contulit Dioceses, scilicet Morratium, Salinensem, (...) Bregantinos, Farum... "[King Miro granted to his Irienses headquarters the dioceses of Morrazo, Salnés (...). Bergantiños, Faro...]" The Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula left no archaeological evidence in the northwest, so it cannot be said whether or not the Muslim invaders ever reached the city. As Muslim rule in early 8th century Galicia consisted little more than a short-lived overlordship of the remote and rugged region backed.... Discover the Casa Das Ciencias popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Casa Das Ciencias books.