ESPAMER'87, Philatelic Exhibition, La Coruna

Number by catalogue:  Michel: Block 101   Yvert: BF 100   Scott: 2964  

Perforation: Harrow   Perforation type: 13x13

Subject:

1 peso. View of La Coruna*, 1525.

Four windmills to the left of stamp, on a hill, are visible

Additional:

*A Coruña (Spanish: La Coruña; Galician: A Coruña; also Corunna in English, and archaically The Groyne) is the second largest city in Galicia in northwestern Spain, second only in size to the port of Vigo in the Pontevedra Province. The city is also the capital of A Coruña Province and it was the capital of Galicia from the year 1563 to 1982 when it moved to Santiago de Compostela.

The name A Coruña is said to be derived from the ancient columna, or Tower of Hercules, which still exists, having been converted into a light-house in 1791.

A more probable etymology relates the word Cluny (Crunia --> Coruña), the religious order from the south of France. During its height (c. 950–c.1130) the Cluniac movement was one of the largest religious forces in Europe. There is another one Coruña in Burgos Province.

A Coruña is a busy port located on a promontory in the entrance of an estuary in a large gulf (the Portus Magnus Artabrorum of the classical geographers) on the Atlantic Ocean. It provides a distribution point for agricultural goods from the region. Although much of the heavy industry is based on the shipyards and metalworks of the neighbouring city of Ferrol, there is an oil refinery in A Coruña itself.

Size (of sheet, booklet) mm: 108x70