Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country, also called the Basque Autonomous Community or Euskadi, is an autonomous community in northern Spain made up of the provinces of Alava (Araba), Biscay (Bizkaia) and Gipuzkoa (Guipuzcoa). It surrounds two enclaves, Trevino and Valle de Villaverde, and with a population of 2,242,343 it is the eighth most populous autonomous community of Spain. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 granted it the status of a nationality, and its self-government rests on the Statute of Autonomy, the Gernika Statute, approved in a referendum on 25 October 1979. The community has no official capital: Vitoria-Gasteiz is the de facto capital because it houses the Basque Parliament, the Basque Government and the residence of the President, while the High Court of Justice sits in Bilbao, the largest municipality by population. The name Basque Country can also mean the wider cultural region of Euskal Herria, which includes this community.