La Línea de la Concepción (Línea de la Concepción, La)
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The city lies on the sandy isthmus which is part of the eastern flank of the Bay of Gibraltar, and it limits with the Gibraltar–Spain border to the south. La Línea has close economic and social links with the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
The first dwellings, which date back to the 18th century, were behind the Spanish lines, being part of the municipality of San Roque until 1870, when La Línea became a standalone municipality.
The people of La Línea have traditionally found work in Gibraltar, from the days in the 18th century when Gibraltar was an important naval port. This stopped with the total closure of the border by the Spanish government between 9 June 1969 and 15 December 1982 as a result of the dispute between Spain and Britain regarding the sovereignty of Gibraltar. The border was fully reopened on 5 February 1985.
La Línea is a major supplier of fruit and vegetables to Gibraltar; other industries include the manufacture of cork, liquor, and fish paste. It also had an important military garrison with substantial fortifications and a port.
The town derives its name firstly from the línea or boundary line separating Spain from Gibraltar, and secondly from the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Its people are called in Spanish linenses.
Map - La Línea de la Concepción (Línea de la Concepción, La)
Map
Country - Spain
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| Flag of Spain | |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| GL | Galician language |
| OC | Occitan language |
| ES | Spanish language |
