Rivas-Vaciamadrid

Rivas-Vaciamadrid
Left: H2O mall, av. Almendros monolith, April 19th square, Bellavista park. Right: City hall, city centre, Santa Mónica church, Casco church
Postal code		28521, 28522, 28523, 28524
Website	www.rivasciudad.es

Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Spanish: [ˈriβas βaθjamaˈðɾið]) is the 15th most populated city in the Community of Madrid, Spain.^[2] It belongs to the Madrid metropolitan area and is located just 15 km from central Madrid, to the south-east. In the southern part of the municipality, the Manzanares river flows into the Jarama, which is part of the Lower Manzanares and Jarama Rivers Regional Park. Almost three quarters of the municipality form part of the park, making it an important ecological centre with numerous lakes and various species of wildlife and fauna.

It has been one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Spain in recent years, growing from 500 inhabitants in the 1980s to its current figure of 100,000. It is bordered to the north by Madrid and San Fernando de Henares, to the south by Arganda del Rey and San Martín de la Vega, to the east by Mejorada del Campo and Velilla de San Antonio, and to the west by Getafe and Madrid (the district of Villa de Vallecas.)

Rivas-Vaciamadrid municipality has the fourth lowest rate of population in risk of poverty, among municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.^[3] It is the most populated city in Spain governed by United Left.

History

In 1845, the area of Vaciamadrid, previously part of the village of Vallecas, was joined to the town of Rivas, with the unified municipality originally called Ribas de Jarama.

The area was devastated during the Spanish Civil War and had to be rebuilt in the post-civil war period. In 1954 the name was changed to its current title. At the end of the 1980s the area was designated as a future nucleus for new urbanisation projects under a project titled Rivas-Urbanizaciones (Rivas-Urbanisations). The first developments were those in the current districts of Pablo Iglesias and Covibar.

In 2004 the municipal boundary with the city of Madrid was altered. This involved the transfer of areas known as Covibar-Madrid to Rivas-Vaciamadrid. In exchange, some uninhabited areas in Los Berrocales district were transferred to the Vicálvaro district of Madrid in order to allow the construction of a new housing project.

Local politics

Rivas-Vaciamadrid has always been governed by left-wing parties, mostly

Thorough most of its modern democratic history, the municipality of Rivas has been ruled by United Left, belonging to the so-called "red belt" of the region. No right-of-centre party has ruled the municipality since the Transition.

Transport

The main road serving Rivas-Vaciamadrid is the A-3 motorway, that connects Madrid with Valencia. The exits to Rivas-Vaciamadrid are numbers 12 (West), 15 (Centre) and 17 (East).

The main public transport in Rivas-Vaciamadrid is the bus.^[6] There are four lines connecting with Madrid and three connecting with other municipalities. Moreover, the Madrid Metro line 9 crosses the city on its way between Madrid and Arganda del Rey, serving Rivas-Vaciamadrid with three stations: Rivas-Urbanizaciones in the west, Rivas Futura in the centre and Rivas-Vaciamadrid in the east.

Festivals

The main festivals are the festival of Romería del Cristo de Rivas (29 September), San Isidro (15 May), the popular festivals of Rivas-Urbanizaciones (second weekend of September) and the festivals of the Urbanisation La Partija on the 15 June.

Education

Locally there are 15 kindergartens (6 public and 9 private), 14 public primary education schools, 5 secondary education institutions and two private schools.

Sports

The city has three teams playing at the top level in their respective sports, Rivas Osos in american football since 2000;