Travel Guide Vitoria-Gasteiz

Surprisingly little-known, Vitoria is a dynamic, fascinating and highly enjoyable city. Visitors will appreciate its architectural beauty and cultural richness, as well as its pleasant pace and quality of life. Located in the center of the Alava plain, Vitoria was founded in 1181 by Sancho VI, King of Navarre, who had acquired neighboring lands to expand his kingdom. Sancho VI surrounded the city with walls, endowed it with privileges and named it "New Vitoria". Historically, Vitoria has always benefited from its strategic location at the crossroads between the Castilian province and northern Europe. In addition to its essential commercial vocation, Vitoria had a special feature: a forum that welcomed nobles and commoners alike.Today, Vitoria is a prosperous city of 250,000 inhabitants, home to the main political institutions of the Basque Autonomous Community: the Basque Parliament and the Basque Government (whose president is elected from among the members of Parliament and appointed by the King). Vitoria-Gasteiz is a green city, with a strong commitment to sustainable development. In fact, it was the first municipality in Spain to adopt Agenda 21, a series of actions designed to integrate respect for nature into local development. It is also the European municipality with the largest surface area of green spaces, with 42 m² per inhabitant. Perhaps it's because of this quality-of-life policy that so many people take part in physical activities: almost a third of the population belong to sports associations.