The country of bullfighting, burning beauties, wine and beaches, it has a rich culture and nature. These things can be told for a long time, in detail and interestingly, but we decided to limit ourselves to the ten most interesting facts about Spain.
10. One of the most mountainous countries in Europe
The most distinctive geographical features of Spain are its mountains. They are so common that Richard Ford, a famous 19th-century English traveler, called Spain's topography “almost one continuous mountain». After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in Europe.. Numerous mountain ranges cross the landscape like protruding ribs, mostly east-west.
In the north, the Pyrenees form a natural border with France, with several peaks rising 3000 meters. West of the Pyrenees and parallel to the north coast, Cordillera Cantabria is home to some of Spain’s rarest wildlife.
Two mountain ranges, the Sierra de Guadarrama and the Sierra de Gredos, cross the center of the peninsula north of Madrid. In the south, the Sierra Morena forms a natural barrier between Castilla La Mancha and Andalusia. Finally, along the southern coast of the Sierra Nevada (which provides some of the best skiing in Spain) includes the highest mountain on the peninsula - Mulhacen, 3,479 meters.
The highest mountain in Spain in fact is Teide in the Canary Islands, 3,718 meters.
9. One of the warmest states in southern Europe
Spain boasts not only a warm, but also a diverse climate in different parts of the country. In the northern regions, for example, it is rather “fresh” and humid: the thermometer for an average year shows 14 ° C: the temperature in Bilbao varies on average from 10 ° C in January - March, to 19 ° C in July - September.
The center is cold in winter and hot in summer: in Madrid, on average, in winter about 8 ° C and in summer on average 23 ° C. In Andalusia and Levant, the climate is temperate, if you do not take into account the summer months, when even in the shade about 40 ° C.
8. Has land borders with five countries
On the west side, Spain borders with Portugal, in the south, Gibraltar is its neighbor, in the north it adjoins Andorra and France, and it borders with Morocco in North Africa. The state connects Europe with Africa, and also separates the Mediterranean Sea from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
7. The largest center of international tourism
The magnificence of the Caliph’s palace, the sun-drenched Mediterranean beaches with a flaming seal of heels of a flamenco dancer, the reverent silence of the pilgrims entering the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela after several weeks of walking around El Camino ...
Add to this the diverse cultural program and festivals of contemporary art, and you will understand why Spain is so highly regarded by tourists. In addition, there is an excellent level of service and developed infrastructure, for which a huge amount of not only budget money was spent, but also attracted investments.
6. The abundance of minerals
Spain has some of the most mineralized areas in Western Europe, including massive sulfide deposits of volcanic origin of the Iberian pyrite belt in southern Spain. It is estimated that it alone produced 1.7 billion tons of sulfides, and more than 80 deposits were registered in which individual tonnages exceeded 1 million tons.
Spain also has the largest known reserves of celestite (the only European producer that ranks second in the world after Mexico), mercury, one of the largest zinc quarries in Europe, and also has glauberite, gold, iron, lead, magnetite, mercury , potassium, quartz, refractory mudstone, sea and rock salt, sepiolitic salts, tin, tungsten and zinc.
5. The most famous museum of the country - Prado
Located in a gigantic neoclassical building built by Juan de Villanueva for King Carlos III in 1785, Prado is Madrid's most famous landmark.
Initially, Carlos wanted to create a museum of natural science, reflecting one of his main interests, but by the time he opened in 1819, this plan changed: Prado was a public art museum - one of the first in the world to showcase royal art.
In recent years, Prado has experienced a very ambitious expansion program, including the reconstruction of Casón del Buen Retiro, an extension opposite the El Retiro park. Behind the main museum, on the site of the convents of San Jeronimo, a new and highly controversial cube-shaped building designed by Rafael Moneo, which hosts temporary exhibitions, was also opened.
As for the collection itself, royal possessions are still the core, therefore, it reflects royal tastes and political alliances from the 15th to 17th centuries, especially the court artists Diego de Velazquez and Francisco de Goya.
Political ties with France, Italy and the southern, Catholic Netherlands also ensure the presence of works by Titian, Rubens and Jerome Bosch among others. The collection did have some gaps, mainly due to the military operations of Spain with England, Holland and other Protestant states, as well as the unfamiliarity of the Spanish monarchs with artists prior to the High Renaissance, but recent acquisitions have somewhat mitigated the situation.
4. Gave the world Picasso, Dali, Miro and Gaudi
And this is not a complete list of great artists and more. Cinema - directed by Pedro Almodovar or actor Antonio Banderas. Sports are iconic footballers from Xavi, Iniesta, Sergio Ramos or Carles Puyol (and this is only in the 21st century). In almost any field, there is at least one Spaniard who has greatly influenced its development..
3. A multi-ethnic country
The state occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula: the territory is divided into 17 autonomous communities. Explain the mentality of Spain, where in addition to the Castilians live Catalans, Galician, Basques and Aragonese, is not so simple.
Each nation has its own language and traditions that are different from each other, and people are proud of their independence and identity. So in Spain not only fans of different football clubs can fight, but also representatives of different communities.
2. The banking system is one of the most stable in Europe
The current stability is the result of painstaking work and courageous reforms, since some couple of decades ago Spain had to go into huge debt to fix the situation. The country provided a loan of up to 100 billion euros, but Spain managed to solve its problems in less than 45 billion, and also began to pay debt ahead of schedule..
1. The main sport is football
Hemingway believed that the national pastime in Spain - bullfight. This is not true. The football season for fans here never ends! There is only one sport that is covered in the news. Everyone else is just a footnote to football coverage.
One morning, a few years ago, on Spanish National Radio RNE, mountaineer Pepa Fernandez made a similar comment, noting that the two gold medals won by Mireille Belmonte at the European Championships in short water swimming received only a minute of light, compared to the watch, given to El Clasico even before the match took place.