Ceuta

"Sabtah" redirects here. For the Biblical figure, see List of minor Biblical figures.

For other uses, see Ceuta (disambiguation).

Ceuta
—  Autonomous city  —
Autonomous City of Ceuta Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (Spanish)
Ceuta, as seen from the belvedere of Isabel II, near the Moroccan border
Flag Coat of arms
Location of the Autonomous City of Ceuta
Coordinates: 35°53′18″N 5°18′56″W
Country	Spain
Autonomous city	Ceuta
First settled	5th century BC
End of Muslim rule	14 August 1415
Ceded to Spain	1 January 1668
Autonomy status	14 March 1995
Founder	Carthaginians
Government
• Type	Autonomous city
• Body	Palacio Municipal o Asamblea
• Mayor	Juan Jesús Vivas Lara (PP)
Area
• Total	18.5 km2 (7.1 sq mi)
• Land	18.5 km2 (7.1 sq mi)
Elevation	10 m (30 ft)
Highest elevation	349 m (1,145 ft)
Population (2000)
• Total	75,241
• Estimate (2009)	78,674
• Density	Bad rounding here4,100/km2 (Bad rounding here11,000/sq mi)
Demonym	Ceutan
Time zone	Madrid (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	Madrid (UTC+2)
ISO 3166-2	ES-CE
Postal code	51001 Ceuta
Official language	Spanish
Parliament	Cortes Generales
Congress	1 deputy (out of 350)
Senate	2 senators (out of 264)
Website	www.ceuta.es

Ceuta (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈθeuta]) (Arabic: سبتة‎, Sebtah) is an 18.5-square-kilometre (7.1 sq mi) autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of Africa, sharing a western border with Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta, along with the Spanish exclave Melilla, is one of two permanently inhabited Spanish territories in mainland Africa. It was part of Málaga province until 14 March 1995, when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.

Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2011, it has a population of 78,674. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims (chiefly Arabic speakers), and small minorities of Jews and Indian Hindus. Spanish is the official language. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being ruled by Morocco. A poll conducted by Instituto Opina found that 87.9% of people from mainland Spain consider the two cities to be Spanish.

History

Royal Walls and navigable moats

Ceuta's location has made it an important commercial trade and military way-point for many cultures, beginning with the Carthaginians in the fifth century BC, who called the city Abyla. It was not until the Romans took control of the region in AD 42 that the port city, then named Septa, assumed an almost exclusive military purpose. It changed hands again approximately 400 years later, when Vandal tribes ousted the Romans. After being controlled by the Visigoths, it then became an outpost of the Byzantine Empire (in Greek Abyla, Ancient Greek: Άβυλα).

Around 710, as Muslim armies approached the city, its Byzantine governor, Julian (described as King of the Ghomara) changed his allegiance, and exhorted the Muslims to invade the Iberian Peninsula. Under the leadership of the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, the Muslims used Ceuta as a staging ground for an assault on Visigothic Iberian Peninsula. After Julian's death, the Berbers took direct control of the city, which the indigenous Berber tribes resented. They destroyed Ceuta during the Kharijite rebellion led by Maysara al-Matghari in 740.

Ceuta lay in ruins until it was resettled in the ninth century by Mâjakas, chief of the Majkasa Berber tribe, who started the short-lived Banu Isam dynasty. His great-grandson briefly allied his tribe with the Idrisids, but the Banu Isam rule ended in 931 when he abdicated in favor of Abd ar-Rahman III, the Umayyad Caliph of Cordoba. Ceuta reverted to Moorish Andalusian rule in 927 along with Melilla, and later Tangier, in 951.

Chaos ensued with the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in 1031. Following this Ceuta and the rest of Muslim Spain were controlled by successive North African dynasties. Starting in 1084, the Almoravid Berbers ruled the region until 1147, when the Almohads conquered the land. Apart from Ibn Hud's rebellion of 1232, they ruled until the Tunisian Hafsids established control. The Hafsids' influence in the west rapidly waned, and Ceuta's inhabitants eventually expelled them in 1249. After this, a period of political instability persisted, under competing interests from the Kingdom of Fez and the Kingdom of Granada. The Kingdom of Fez finally conquered the region in 1387, with assistance from the Crown of Aragon.

In 1415, during the Battle of Ceuta, the city was captured by the Portuguese during the reign of John I of Portugal. The Benemerine sultan besieged the city in 1418 but was defeated. The King of Spain, Phillip II, raised to the Portuguese throne in 1580 and held it for 60 years (Iberian Union). During this time, Ceuta attracted many residents of Spanish origin. Ceuta became the only city of the Portuguese Empire that sided with Spain when Portugal regained its independence in 1640, and war broke out between the two countries.

The formal allegiance of Ceuta to Spain was recognized by the Treaty of Lisbon by which, on 1 January 1668, King Afonso VI of Portugal formally ceded Ceuta to Carlos II of Spain. However, the originally Portuguese flag and coat of arms of Ceuta remained unchanged, and the modern-day Ceuta flag features the configuration of the Portuguese shield. The flag's background is the same as that of the flag of the city of Lisbon.

In July 1936, General Francisco Franco took command of the Spanish Army of Africa and rebelled against the Spanish republican government; his military uprising led to the Spanish Civil War. The troops were transported to mainland Spain in an airlift using transport aircraft supplied by Germany and Italy. Ceuta was one of the first casualties of the uprising. The citizens of Ceuta were repressed by the rebel nationalist forces led by General Franco, while at the same time the city came under fire from the air and sea forces of the republican government.

A monument was erected to honour Francisco Franco; the Llano Amarillo, inaugurated on 13 July 1940, still stands. The tall obelisk has been abandoned, but the shield symbols of the Falange and Imperial Eagle are still visible.

Calle de Compañía del Mar in Ceuta

When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the other plazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule. They were considered integral parts of the Spanish state, but Morocco has disputed this point. Culturally, modern Ceuta is part of the Spanish region of Andalusia. It was attached to the province of Cádiz until 1925, the Spanish coast being only 20 km away. It is a cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnic Berber Muslim minority as well as Sephardic Jewish and Hindu minorities.

On 5 November 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking great enthusiasm from the local population and protests from the Moroccan government. It was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years.

Since 2010, Ceuta (and Melilla) have declared the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice, as an official public holiday. It is the first time a non-Christian religious festival has been officially celebrated in Spain since the Reconquista.

Ecclesiastical history

The Catholic Diocese of Ceuta existed from 1417 to 1879. It was a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Lisbon until 1675 and the end of the Iberian Union, when Ceuta chose to remain linked to the king of Spain. Since then it has been a suffragan of the archbishopric of Seville. The Diocese of Tanger was suppressed and incorporated to that of Ceuta in 1570. In 1851, upon the signature of the concordat between the Holy See and Spain, the diocese of Ceuta was agreed to be suppressed, being combined into the diocese of Cádiz y Ceuta. Until then in the diocese of Cádiz y Algeciras, the bishop was usually the apostolic administrator of Ceuta. The agreement was not implemented until 1879.

Geography

Perspective view of the Strait of Gibraltar facing eastwards; Spain and Gibraltar on the left; Morocco and Ceuta on the right

Ceuta is dominated by Monte Anyera, a hill along its western frontier with Morocco. The mountain is guarded by a Spanish fort.

Monte Hacho on the Peninsula de Almina overlooking the port is one of the possible locations for the southern Pillars of Hercules, of Greek legend (the other possibility being Jebel Musa).

Climate

Climate data for Ceuta (Monte Hacho, altitud: 200 m)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	14.6 (58.3)	14.9 (58.8)	16.2 (61.2)	17.7 (63.9)	20.6 (69.1)	23.4 (74.1)	26.2 (79.2)	26.7 (80.1)	24.6 (76.3)	21.1 (70)	17.4 (63.3)	15.2 (59.4)	20.0 (68)
Daily mean °C (°F)	11.5 (52.7)	11.7 (53.1)	12.6 (54.7)	13.8 (56.8)	16.4 (61.5)	19.0 (66.2)	21.7 (71.1)	22.2 (72)	20.3 (68.5)	17.4 (63.3)	14.2 (57.6)	12.0 (53.6)	16.1 (61)
Average low °C (°F)	8.4 (47.1)	8.4 (47.1)	9.0 (48.2)	10.0 (50)	12.1 (53.8)	14.8 (58.6)	17.2 (63)	17.6 (63.7)	16.0 (60.8)	13.7 (56.7)	10.9 (51.6)	8.9 (48)	12.2 (54)
Precipitation mm (inches)	87 (3.43)	87 (3.43)	59 (2.32)	56 (2.2)	28 (1.1)	13 (0.51)	1 (0.04)	1 (0.04)	11 (0.43)	61 (2.4)	76 (2.99)	108 (4.25)	586 (23.07)
Avg. precipitation days (≥ 1 mm)	10.3	10.8	8.6	8.3	4.9	2.9	0.7	0.5	3.2	7.9	9.4	11.0	78.5
Mean monthly sunshine hours	156	149	195	213	260	290	305	293	237	190	163	161	2,611
Source: Agencia Estatal de Meteorología

Politics

Location of Ceuta in relation to Gibraltar, Morocco and Spain

Ceuta stands south of the Strait of Gibraltar, as seen from the International Space Station

Map of Ceuta (Perejil islet is just off the coast, to the left of the image)

Ceuta is known officially in Spanish as Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (English: Autonomous City of Ceuta), with a rank between a standard Spanish city and an autonomous community. Ceuta is part of the territory of the European Union. The city was a free port before Spain joined the European Union in 1986. Now it has a low-tax system within the European Monetary System. As of 2006, its population was 75,861.

Ceuta is subdivided into 63 barriadas (English: neighborhoods), such as Barriada de Berizu, Barriada de P. Alfonso, Barriada del Sarchal, and El Hacho.

Status

Since 1995, Ceuta is, along with Melilla, one of the two autonomous cities of Spain. The government of Morocco has repeatedly called for Spain to transfer the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla, along with uninhabited islets such as the islands of Alhucemas, Velez and the Perejil island, drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. In both cases, the national governments and local populations of the disputed territories reject these claims by a large majority. The Spanish position states that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state, and have been since the 16th century, centuries prior to Morocco's independence from France in 1956, whereas Gibraltar, being a British Overseas Territory, is not and never has been part of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Ceuta has been under Christian rule (Spanish or Portuguese) for a longer period than major cities in peninsular Spain such as Málaga, Granada or Almería, and has been so since before the creation of the Spanish state in 1475. Morocco denies these claims and maintains that the Spanish presence in Ceuta and the other presidios on its coast is a remnant of the colonial past which should be ended. However, the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories do not consider those Spanish territories to be colonies, whereas it does declare Gibraltar as a non-decolonized territory.

Economy

A sign welcoming visitors to Ceuta, showing the flags of Ceuta, Spain and the European Union.

The official currency of Ceuta is the euro. It is part of a special low tax zone in Spain. Ceuta is one of two Spanish port cities on the northern shore of Africa, along with Melilla. They are historically military strongholds, free ports, oil ports, and also fishing and smuggling centers. Today the economy of the city depends heavily on its port (now in expansion) and its industrial and retail centres. Ceuta Heliport is now used to connect the city to mainland Spain by air.

Along with Melilla, Ceuta is the main link to and from the plazas de soberanía, especially the Islas Chafarinas, occupied by Spain during the 19th century.

Transport

The city receives high numbers of ferries each day, most from Spain. Ferries cross from Algeciras in Andalucia in the south of Spain.

Occasionally, cruise ships stop by. There is a bus service throughout the city which does not pass into neighbouring Morocco.

Ceuta has a regular helicopter service from Ceuta Heliport to mainland Spain.

The closest airport is Sania Ramel Airport.

Places of worship

• Parroquia De Santa Maria De Los Remedios
• Comunidad Israelita De Ceuta
• Parroquia De San Francisco
• Santa Iglesia Catedral
• Parroquia Santa Maria De Africa – Casa Parroquial
• Vicaria General Del Obispado De Ceuta
• Parroquia Santa Teresa De Jesus De Ceuta

Roman Catholic Diocese of Ceuta (1417–1851)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Cadiz y Ceuta, since 1851.

Schools

• Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria Andrés Manjón
• Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria Lope De Vega
• Centro de Educación Infantil Globitos
• Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria Maestro José Acosta
• Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria Santiago Ramón y Cajal
• Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria Juan Carlos I
• Instituto de Educación Secundaria Siete Colinas
• Instituto de Educación Secundaria Almina
• Instituto de Educación Secundaria Puertas del Campo
• Colegio Público José Ortega y Gasset
• Colegio Sta. María Micaela
• Colegio Severo Ochoa
• Colegio de San Agustin

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Spain

Ceuta is twinned with:

• Aci Catena, Italy
• Algeciras, Spain
• Cádiz, Spain
• Guadalajara, Mexico
• Melilla, Spain
• Santarém, Portugal

See also

• Arab Baths in Ceuta
• Plazas de soberanía – Spanish exclaves on the Moroccan coast
• Benzú
• Ceuta border fence
• Melilla
• List of Spanish Colonial Wars in Morocco
• Spanish Morocco

External links

• (Spanish) Official Ceuta government website
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Diocese of Cadiz". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.