Spain Facts: 58 Facts about Spain ←FACTSlides→

The official name of Spain is the "Kingdom of Spain."

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Spain is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union.

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Spain was the third most visited country in the world in 2013.

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72%

of Spain speaks Spanish. The rest speaks Catalan, Galician, Basque and others.

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Modern humans first arrived in Iberia (now Spain), from the north on foot, about 35,000 years ago.

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The national anthem of Spain has no words.

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La Tomatina is an annual festival held in Spain where people throw thousands of tomatoes at each other.

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The Bull is the national animal of Spain.

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The Sagrada Familia church in Spain, has been under construction for over 130 years and it's only expected to be complete by 2026.

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Spain had more unemployment in 2013 (27.2%) than the US had during the Great Depression (25%).

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Spanish rice is unknown in Spain.

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In 2000, Spain's Paralympic basketball team had to return their gold medals after nearly all of their players were found to have no disability.

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There are no laws against public nudity in Spain.

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The world's oldest existing lighthouse is the Tower of Hercules, in Spain, erected in the first century and still operational.

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There's a town in Spain where 700 people share the surname "Japon" as they are descendants of 17th-century samurais who stayed there after an embassy returned to Japan.

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Two Roman dams

in Spain

are still in use

after 1900 years.

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In 1971, Evita Peron's body was exhumed and flown to Spain, where Argentina's Ex-President Juan Peron and his new wife kept the corpse in their dining room.

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Spain was neutral in WW1 and WW2, but experienced a civil war (1936-1939) which killed over 500,000 people.

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Spain has two major exclaves, Ceuta and Melilla, in mainland Africa.

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Spaniard double agent Joan Pujol Garcia had the rare distinction of receiving an Iron Cross from the Germans and an MBE from the British during WW2.

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43%

of the world's olive oil production is done in Spain.

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Britain accidentally invaded Spain in 2002. About 20 Royal Marines disembarked in Spain instead of Gibraltar for 5 minutes until the error was recognised and they all withdrew.

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Prostitutes in Spain have to wear reflective vests, like highway workers, to reduce accidents.

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There's a zipline connecting Spain and Portugal. It's 2,365 ft (720 m) and 60 seconds long.

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The youngest king ever was Alfonso XIII of Spain, who became king the day he was born.

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A line of descendants of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II was brought to Spain and became part of the Spanish nobility, holding the title of "Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo."

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In 2011, a small town in Spain, on the brink of financial ruin, bet on the world's biggest lottery and won.

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In 1492, the Catholic monarchs of Spain issued a decree banning all Jews from Spain. Sultan Bayezid, a Muslim, sent the Ottoman navy to Spain to rescue the Jews from Spanish persecution.

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In 1894, Japan offered to buy the Philippines from Spain for 40 million pounds.

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The U.S. has more Spanish speakers than Spain.

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Over 16,000 religious festivals across Spain are said to involve animal cruelty. About 60,000 animals die every year on them.

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Slandering or defaming the Royal family in Spain can carry a sentence of up to two years in prison.

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There's a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus alive today. He's a Spanish noble.

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Of all the countries that celebrate an independence day, 58 are independent of the UK, 26 of France, 21 of Russia and 21 of Spain.

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Spain was Europe's leading power throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and became the world's leading maritime power.

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There's a 47-story skyscraper in Spain that has NO elevator.

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In Catalonia (Spain), a smiley-faced piece of wood called "Shitting Log" poops out the presents in Christmas.

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The last Moorish kingdom in Spain fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas.

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In 2007, scientists in Spain found a tooth from a distant human ancestor that is more than 1 million years old.

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The Eiffel Tower was originally intended for Barcelona, Spain, but the project was rejected.

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Spain has the fourth highest life expectancy in the world with 82.8 years.

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Spanish and Brazilian women only spend about an hour and a half a week on housework, while French women spend almost no time on it.

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In France, Germany, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands they serve beer in McDonald's.

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Spain changed many of its street names from those of male fascists to those of influential women.

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"El Colacho" is a traditional holiday in Burgos, Spain, where men dressed as the Devil leap over infants who are lying on mattresses in the street.

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In Spain, Belgium, Portugal and France everyone is automatically an organ donor, unless they refuse beforehand.

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Donald Trump was the most Googled person of 2016 in 88 countries, including Mexico, Spain, South Africa and New Zealand.

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In 2015, Spanish workers destroyed a 6,000-year-old Neolithic tomb, mistaking it for a broken picnic table. They replaced it with a ‘better' picnic table.

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The IKEA store on "Calle Me Falta un Tornillo" ("I've Got a Screw Loose Street") in Valladolid, Spain, is hard to find because people keep stealing the street signs.

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Salvador Dalí made a painting for the prisoners at Rikers Island (NY), which hung in the prison dining room for 15 years. In 2003, the painting was stolen by 4 guards.

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There's a monument to the liver in Spain, calling it ''the silent and unselfish organ.''

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Spain has more tourists than residents. 75 million people visited Spain in 2016, while only 46 million people live there.

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La Sagrada Familia, in Spain, will take longer to complete than the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

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It is illegal to wear a bikini in Barcelona, except on the beach.

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In 2015, an abandoned airport in Spain, that cost €1 billion to build, received just one bid for €10,000 after going up for auction.

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Catalonia has declared independence four times in history, since 1641.

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The Spanish Flu did not start in Spain. The rest of Europe was at war and news was strictly censored, so Spanish newspapers became the most reliable source of information about it.

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Madrid has the oldest running restaurant in the world, Sobrino de Botín, open since 1725.

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Spain Facts 58 Facts about Spain

Spain Facts
58 Facts about Spain