Castile and León

Castile and León is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain.

It was created in 1983 by the merging of the provinces of the historic region of León: León, Zamora and Salamanca with those of Castilla La Vieja: Ávila, Burgos, Palencia, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid. The provinces of Santander and Logroño, which until then had been included in the Old Castile administrative division, opted out of this merger and formed the new Autonomous Communities of Cantabria and La Rioja respectively.

Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain in terms of area, covering 94,222 km2. It is however sparsely populated, with a population density below 30/km2. While a capital has not been explicitly declared, the seats of the executive and legislative powers are set in Valladolid by law and for all purposes that city serves as de facto regional capital.