Gipuzkoa

The Province of Gipuzkoa (US: ghee-POO-skoh-ə, Basque: [ɡiˈpus̻ko.a]; Spanish: Guipúzcoa [ɡiˈpuθkoa] ; French: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain in the Basque Autonomous Community, and a historical territory of the Basque Country. Its capital city is San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque). Gipuzkoa shares borders at its northeast with Labourd in the French Basque Country, which is in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, with the province and autonomous community of Navarre at the east, Biscay at the west, Álava at the southwest and the Bay of Biscay to its north. It is located at the easternmost extreme of the Cantabric Sea, in the Bay of Biscay. It has 66 kilometres (41 miles) of coastline. With an area of 1,981.14 square kilometres (764.92 square miles), Gipuzkoa is the smallest province of Spain. The province has 89 municipalities and a population of 733,149 inhabitants, from which more than half live in the San Sebastian metropolitan area. Apart from the capital, other important cities are Irun, Errenteria, Zarautz, Mondragón, Eibar, Hondarribia, Oñati, Tolosa, Beasain and Pasaia. Gipuzkoa is the province of the Basque Country in which the Basque language is the most extensively used since 49.1% of its population spoke Basque in 2006.