Concept

San Sebastián

Summary
San Sebastian, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (doˈnos̺ti.a, san seβasˈtjan), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border. The capital city of the province of Gipuzkoa, the municipality's population is 188,102 as of 2021, with its metropolitan area reaching 436,500 in 2010. Locals call themselves donostiarra (singular), both in Spanish and Basque. It is also a part of Basque Eurocity Bayonne-San Sebastián. The economic activities in the city are dominated by the service sector, with an emphasis on commerce and tourism, as San Sebastian has long been well-known as a tourist destination. Despite the city's small size, events such as the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the San Sebastian Jazz Festival have given it an international dimension. San Sebastian, along with Wrocław, Poland, was the European Capital of Culture in 2016. In spite of appearance, both the Basque form Donostia and the Spanish form San Sebastián have the same meaning — Saint Sebastian. The dona/done/doni element in Basque place names signifies "saint" and is derived from Latin domine; the second part of Donostia contains a shortened form of the saint's name. There are two hypotheses regarding the evolution of the Basque name: one says it was *Done Sebastiáne > Donasa(b)astiai > Donasastia > Donastia > Donostia, the other one says it was *Done Sebastiane > *Done Sebastiae > *Done Sebastie > *Donesebastia > *Donasastia > *Donastia > Donostia.es «Donostia-San Sebastián: Onomástica», Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia. The city is located in the north of the Basque Country, on the south-eastern coast of the Bay of Biscay. San Sebastian has three beaches, Concha, Ondarreta, and Zurriola, and is surrounded by hilly areas: Urgull (adjacent to the old part of the city), Mount Ulia (extending east to Pasaia), Mount Adarra (south of the city) and Igeldo (overlooking Concha Bay from the west).
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.