Loiu
| Loiu | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Municipality | |||
| |||
  Loiu Location of Loiu within the Basque Country | |||
 Loiu Location of Loiu within Spain | |||
| Coordinates: 43°18′53″N 2°56′20″W / 43.31472°N 2.93889°WCoordinates: 43°18′53″N 2°56′20″W / 43.31472°N 2.93889°W | |||
| Country | Spain | ||
| Autonomous community | Basque Country | ||
| Province | Biscay | ||
| Comarca | Greater Bilbao | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 15 km2 (6 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 26 m (85 ft) | ||
| Population (2014) | |||
| • Total | 2,388 | ||
| • Density | 160/km2 (410/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym(s) | Basque: loiutarra | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 48180 | ||
| Website | Official website | ||
Loiu (Spanish: Lujua) is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain.
The new Bilbao Airport terminal has been built within the municipality limits.
Geography
It is located in Asua Valley, between Derio in the east part and Erandio in the west part.
Composition
A big part of the population is dispersed around country farmhouses (called baserri or caseríos). The main neighbourhod is Zabaloetxe, where the church is located. Other urban areas are Elochelerri (en euskera Elotxelerri), in the way to Asua Valey (BI-637), next to the airport, and Lauros (Lauro).
Airport
The Bilbao Airport, after the last expansion, is mostly located in the town of Lujua.
Toponym
In Euskera, the town is called Loiu officially. In Spanish, the town is called Lujua.
The old name of this town was Luxua, but it was converted into Spanish after the phonetic evolution of x/j (siglo XVII) in Lujua (the same as Xerez -> Jerez).
In Euskera, the phonetic evolution of the toponym was different, when the -a final was lost, evolve the phonema x in a different way to the Spanish language y, and the variation of the tonic syllable lu for lo. That is Luxu(a) -> Lu(x)u -> L(u)iu -> Loiu. Euskaltzaindia adopted Loiu as the formal denomination of the name. Liou adopted its official name in 1983.
See also
- Caserío Bengoetxe
