ZARAGOZA, a city of four cultures, offers everything a visitor would expect from a big city, but with the feel and friendliness of a village.

Although steeped in history Zaragoza is every bit a modern, forward-looking city with ambitious plans for the future, at the heart of which is its bid for Expo 2008.

The plans include redevelopment of land north of the Ebro, the wide river along which the city is built, as well as a new railway station, bridges across the river and a dam to maintain the water level to promote sport and leisure activities on the water.

The city is competing against Trieste, in Italy and Thesalonika, in Greece in the Expo 2008 bid and will find out on 15 December of it has been successful.

Ever since the first Iberian settlements in the Neolithic times Zaragoza has been a strategic location and remains so today. Zaragoza is Spain´s fifth city and is located roughly 300km from each of four of the other five main cities, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao. Links with these neighbouring cities will only increase with the arrival of the high speed AVE train which can cover the 300 km in just an hour and 45 minutes.