Roberto Sueiras · CC BY-SA 3.0Coastal city
Gijón (Spanish) or Xixón (Asturian) is a city and municipality in northwestern Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias.
It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the central-northern part of Asturias; it is approximately 24 km (15 mi) northeast of Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, and 26 km (16 mi) from Avilés. With a population of 270,219 as of 2024, Gijón is the 16th-largest city in Spain.
Gijón forms part of a large metropolitan area that includes twenty councils in the center of the region, structured with a dense network of roads, highways and railways and with a population of 835,053 inhabitants in 2011, making it the 7th-largest in Spain.
During the 20th century, Gijón developed as an industrial city in the steel and naval industries. However, due to the decline in manufacturing in these industries, in recent years Gijón is undergoing a transformation into an important tourist, university, commercial and R&D center. Gijón is the location of the Radiotelevisión del Principado de Asturias, the neighbourhood of Cimavilla, the Universidad Laboral de Gijón, the Revillagigedo Palace, and the adjoining Collegiate Church of San Juan Bautista.
Gijón is part of the statistical (not yet developed from an administrative standpoint) comarca of Gijón.
Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
7 photographs of Gijón, taken here and in its own light.
