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About Spain

     Spain (Spanish: España (help·info), IPA: [es'paɲa]), is a Western European country. The country consists of Peninsular Spain which is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, two archipelagos, one in each sea, and two autonomous cities in North Africa.

     The Spanish mainland is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and east, by the Cantabric Sea that includes the Bay of Biscay to the north, and by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal to the west. Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands off the African coast. It shares land borders with Portugal, France, Andorra, the British colony of Gibraltar, and Morocco. It is the largest of the three sovereign states that make up the Iberian Peninsula — the others being Portugal and Andorra. With an area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe (behind France).

     Spain is a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, and has been a member of the European Union since 1986. It is a developed country with the ninth largest economy in the world and fifth largest in the EU.

     Spain has a very ancient and complex prehistory. Under the Roman empire Hispania flourished and became one of the empire's most important regions. During the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule. Later, nearly the entire peninsula came under Muslim rulers. Through a long process Christian kingdoms in the north gradually rolled back Muslim rule, which was finally extinguished in 1492. That year Columbus reached the Americas, the beginnings of the first global empire. Spain became the strongest kingdom in Europe in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries but continued wars and other problems eventually led to a diminished status. In the middle decades of the twentieth century it came under a dictatorship, under which it went through many years of stagnation and then a spectacular economic revival. In 1986 it joined the European Union and has experienced an economic and cultural renaissance.

About Fuengirola

     Fuengirola is a large town and municipality on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain in the province of Málaga and the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is a major tourist resort on the Costa del Sol, with more than 8 km of beaches, and home to a mediæval Moorish fortress. In common with much of this coast, it houses considerable urban development, much of it higher rise blocks of flats.

     The area enjoys a subtropical Mediterranean climate, with annual average temperatures of 18°C.

    Fuengirola now offers all the facilities to be expected of a major tourist centre - hotels, restaurants, bars, discotheques, sports clubs, a yacht harbour, and broad beaches along a promenade extending east and west from the town, that includes smaller adjacent villages.

    Of the approximately 60,000 inhabitants registered in the municipality, 25% come from other countries, mainly European (England, Ireland, Scotland, Finland and Sweden, among others), and also from Morocco and Argentina. In the summer especially, the town plays host to throngs of visitors both Spanish and foreign, but in particular British. The English community in particular is large enough to support a fully developed programme of activities and local groups.

     Fuengirola Zoo is well known. Once an old-fashioned collection of cramped cages, the zoo was modernized in 2001 to feature "tropical-forest" dwellings. The zoo specializes in captive breeding for endangered species, chimpanzee-group research and tropical-forest education.

     Although Fuengirola is a comparatively developed resort it does also have a number of historical sites and open parks. The old port is still used by the local Spanish fisherman. The Arab castle of Suhayl, or Sohail, remained an abandoned ruin until renovations began in 1995. In 2000 the interior of the castle was completely renovated and the Sohail castle begun to host festivals and concerts throughout the summer. Additional landscaping was completed in 2002 and the castle is now one of the highlights of Fuengirola's cultural and historical scene.

     The town is largely urban in character, with many high-rise blocks of flats - many towards the sea-front - although some narrow streets can be found with many low-rise villas. Considerable commercial development is underway further inland, towards to the north of the town, with the recent construction of a large shopping centre and retail park and ongoing development of housing areas. A large branch of El Corte Ingles opened in 2006 in the inland suburb of Las Lagunas.