España (Spain)

They have, there is no doubt, a generosity, a species of nobility,
that do not really belong to the twentieth century.

—George Orwell, on the Spanish people in Chapter 14 of Homage to Catalonia

Spain is the homeland of Elena and the country where we now live, by the foot of the Mountains of Madrid.

These lands were subject to many external influences since prehistoric times and have been one of the great melting pot of races and cultures, particularly a blend of Moorish and Jewish, until it emerged as a modern state in the 15th century with the Catholic Monarchs and the completion of the Reconquista in the Annus Mirabilis 1492 where they also started a new era with the discovery and then conquest of a new world. The Spanish language became as a result one of the most important of the planet.

Gallery

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  The acqueduct of Segovia, on 30 April (2006).
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  Fabrice in the Corral de Comedias of Almagro, on 13 February (2007).
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  A ciconia (cigüeña) and its nest on a belltower in Alcalá de Henares on 7 March (2008).
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  A land of seashores, here in Cambados, in December (2016).
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  A land of proper castles, here in Baños de la Encina on 29 December (2017).
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  A land of olives and history: Granada in Andalusia, December (2017).
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  A land of wine and Plaza Mayor, here in Valdepeñas, in January (2018).
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  A view from Muslim Spain in la Alhambra in 23 December (2017).
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  A view from the Spanish empire: Carlos V's palace, id.
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  In the streets of Baeza, in January (2018).
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  A typical Andalusian square in Granada, December (2017).
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  La Guardia de Jaén under a stormy sky, in January (2018).
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  The Torre del Oro in Sevilla, glittering like gold on the Guadalquivir, the "sea" to the New World, in March (2018).
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  Gate to the Salón de los Embajadores in the palace of Pedro I de Castilla, March (2018).
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  Los campos de Castilla, as they are rarely seen when it rained enough, from an overlanding trip near home on 20 May (2018).
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  Julia trodding the center of the Iberian peninsula on 24 August (2018).
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  The hills and mountains of Asturias, on 31 August (2018).
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  The Plaza Mayor of Pedraza, one of the most iconic of the country, on 15 February (2019).
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  The medieval Plaza Mayor (del Coso) of Peñafiel, on 3 March (2019).
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  The monastory of Uclés, on 13 April (2019).
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  A typical mushroom rock from the Provincia de Cuenca, during our 2019 Easter trip.
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  The scenery carved by the Jucar, id.
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  Antoine on the Moorish mountains of Castile–La_Mancha, id.
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  Albarracin, on 16 April (2019).
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  In the best walk in the Sierra de Madrid, on 14 June (2020).
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  El Escorial from the flanks of the Abantos, on 26 July (2020).
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  In the shadows of El Tolmo de la Pedriza de Madrid, too big to be a rock, too small to be a mountain, on 1 May (2022).
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  The Castillo de Anguix, guarding the Tajo downstream the embalse of Entrepeñas in Guadalajara, on 8 May (2022).

Autonomous Communities

Galicia Navarre Madrid La Rioja Aragon Catalonia Valencia Castile–
La Mancha Extremadura Portugal Castile
and León Asturias Cantabria Basque Country Murcia Andalusia Ceuta Melilla France Balearic
Islands Canary
Islands Mediterranean Sea Bay of Biscay Atlantic Ocean Andorra Atlantic Ocean Gibraltar

Municipalities

Top Cities

Madrid and Barcelona are the two Spanish megalopolis, sometimes with a bit of antagonism.

The top 50 cities appear in the list below (click to unfold):

#	Municipality	Pop. (2025 est.)
1	Madrid	3,350,000
2	Barcelona	1,650,000
3	Valencia	870,000
4	Seville	710,000
5	Zaragoza	680,000
6	Málaga	580,000
7	Murcia	450,000
8	Palma	410,000
9	Las Palmas	390,000
10	Bilbao	360,000
11	Alicante	340,000
12	Córdoba	330,000
13	Valladolid	320,000
14	Vigo	300,000
15	Gijón	280,000
16	L'Hospitalet de Llobregat	260,000
17	A Coruña	248,000
18	Vitoria-Gasteiz	240,000
19	Granada	236,000
20	Elche	232,000
21	Oviedo	226,000
22	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	224,000
23	Badalona	222,000
24	Cartagena	214,000
25	Terrassa	212,000
26	Jerez de la Frontera	210,000
27	Sabadell	208,000
28	Móstoles	207,000
29	Alcalá de Henares	205,000
30	Pamplona	200,000
31	Fuenlabrada	198,000
32	Almería	190,000
33	Leganés	187,000
34	Donostia-San Sebastián	187,000
35	Santander	184,000
36	Castellón de la Plana	182,000
37	Burgos	180,000
38	Albacete	171,000
39	Alcorcón	169,000
40	Getafe	168,000
41	Salamanca	156,000
42	Logroño	153,000
43	San Cristóbal de La Laguna	152,000
44	Huelva	149,000
45	Badajoz	148,500
46	Tarragona	141,000
47	Lleida	139,000
48	Marbella	135,000
49	León	134,500
50	Cádiz	127,000

Beautiful Villages

There is an official list of los pueblos mas bonitos de España (see also the list from National Geographics). Those also include fairly large cities. Somebody also compiled a list of pueblos magicos. As for us, our selection include Albarracín, Hecho, Santillana del Mar, Pedraza or Buitrago de Lozoya, among many others.

We are not fan of Cudillero, where we got fined for parking slightly out the marks, due to other cars also not being well parked. The food there was also on the touristy side.

All municipalities by Provinces

This is a complete list of the Spanish municipalities:

Geography

Mountain Range

Extreme points

(of mainland Spain)

• Northernmost Point — Punta de Estaca de Bares, Galicia.
• Southernmost Point — Punta de Tarifa, Andalusia.
• Westernmost Point — Cape Touriñán, Galicia.
• Easternmost Point — Cap de Creus, Catalonia.
• Highest Point — Mulhacen 3,478 m, Sierra Nevada.

The centre of the Iberian peninsula is assigned to Cerro de los Ángeles in Getafe.

Satellite view

At night, as seen from the International Space Station on 26 July (2014):

Culture

Languages

Of the Iberian peninsula, we only speak Spanish (and only Elena as a native).

Spanish is a contender to English in the Americas. We were surprised that it was very common in Chicago.

Identity

Folk culture

• Flamenco.

Gastronomy

Spanish food is not the most famous and is often overlooked in lists where French and Italian foods are systematically highly featured. This is an error since Spanish gastronomy is extremely varied and rich from the Mediteraneean standard of cooking. Its most famous dish is the Paella but they also have established worldwide fame for tapas and chorizo. Their ham (Jamon) is first class worldwide as is their olive oil. They cook a lot fish, much more than their neihgbours, and also produce high-quality (and well-priced) wine.

Architecture

• Paradores.