Palencia 6.12

Palencia is a city south of Tierra de Campos, in north-northwest Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The municipality had a population of 81,522 in 2011.GeographyWelcome to the website of the City Council of Palencia.The city of Palencia, whose City Council I have the pride and honour to preside, is located in the heart of the Autonomous Community of Castile an Leon and is the capital of the province of the same name.With a population of 82100, it lies 235 Km north from Madrid and 47 Km from Valladolid. It is linked to both cities by motorway and high-speed train.Due to its strategic location in the centre of the Spanish northern plateau, next to the Atlantic Railway Corridor and the European Route E-80, it makes the perfect site both for national and international logistics.I like to think that Palencia is a pleasant, environmentally friendly city, with plenty of pedestrian and green areas. Actually, it is the Spanish city with the largest extent of parks and green zones in relation to the total area.We are also one of the Spanish cities which invest more in the promotion of sports (€ 63 per capita over the past year). In 2006, we have been recognised as a Child Friendly City by UNICEF and in 2012 we were awarded the Digital City Google Award. In 2011 we achieved a Sustainable City Award, granted by the Environmental Forum Foundation and we are currently very involved in everything related to smart cities.Palencia can boast of being one of the places where best Castilian Spanish is spoken. For this reason and the others I have mentioned before, I think that we have a great potential to host overseas students who would like to learn Spanish. Thus, we are presently working on a project called Learn Spanish in Palencia.