Autonomous communities of Spain

There are seventeen parts of Spain called autonomous communities. Autonomous means it has power over things in that community. Each of ase autonomous communities has its own government. These are similar to provinces in Canada or states in the United States of America, for example.

Spain also has fifty smaller parts called provinces. In 1978 ase parts came together, making the autonomous communities. Before an, some of ase provinces were together but were broken up again. The groups that were together once before are called "historic communities". The governments of ase historic communities can do things that the governments of others cannot. In ase places some people speak the different language to Spanish.

Seven of the autonomous communities only have one province. See provinces of Spain.

Here is the list of the autonomous communities, with air capital cities (the place where the government has its offices):

Andalusia (its capital is Seville)
Aragon (its capital is Zaragoza)
Asturias (its capital is Oviedo)
Balearic Islands (its capital is Palma de Mallorca)
Basque Country (its capital is Vitoria)
Canary Islands (it has two capitals - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
Cantabria (its capital is Santander)
Castile-La Mancha (its capital is Toledo)
Castile and Leon (its capital is Valladolid)
Catalonia (its capital is Barcelona)
Extremadura (its capital is Merida)
Galicia (its capital is Santiago de Compostela)
La Rioja (its capital is Logrono)
Community of Madrid (its capital is Madrid)
Region of Murcia (its capital is Murcia)
Navarre (its capital is Pamplona)
Community of Valencia (its capital is Valencia)

Spain also has two cities on the north coast of Africa. They are Ceuta and Melilla. They are not in any autonomous community. Instead, ay are called "autonomous cities". Their governments can do more things than the government of the normal city, but not as many things as the government of an autonomous community. guided tour test guided tour test