75 Facts About Spain You Should Know | Legacy Facts

75 Facts About Spain You Should Know

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

# España is the Spanish name for Spain.

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

# The national animal of Spain is the bull.

# One of the Interesting facts about Spain is that the national anthem of Spain is one of the national anthems that doesn't have words(lyrics).

# In Spain, the most popular sport is football or soccer.

# Spain was the world's first nation where the main source of electricity is wind power.

# Madrid is the capital city of Spain and also the largest city.

# The word "Madrid" originates from the word Arab magerit, meaning "place of many streams."

# Madrid is home to the world's oldest operating restaurant, Sobrino de Botín, open since 1725.

# The Madrid Subway is Europe's second-largest subway network and the world's sixth-largest.

# Barcelona is the second-largest city in Spain, which is located in Catalonia.

# Of the Spaniards living in houses, 80 percent are homeowners.

# In Spain, 72 percent speak Spanish. The rest speak Catalan, Basque, Galician, etc.

# There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than in Spain.

# With 82.8 years Spain has the world's fourth-highest life expectancy.

# Mount Teide is the highest mountain in Spain, which is 3,718 meters (12,198 feet) above sea level.

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

# Artists like Picasso, Gaudi, Valasquez, and Salvador Dali, are of Spanish origin.

# Women from Spain and Brazil spend only about an hour and a half a week on housework, while French women spend almost no time on it.

# Everyone is automatically an organ donor in Spain, Belgium, Portugal, and France unless they refuse to do so beforehand.

# La Tomatina is a Spanish annual festival where people throw thousands of tomatoes at each other.

# In Spain, flamenco is the most popular style of music and dance. It is an art form that originates in the southern regions of Andalusia, Extremadura, and Murcia.

# Paella is a traditional Spanish dish from Valencia. It is a rice dish that can have meat, fish, seafood, and vegetables and is characterized by its use of saffron to give it a yellow color and unique flavor.

# "El Colacho" is a traditional holiday in Burgos, Spain where men dressed as the Devil jump over children sleeping on mattresses in the street.

# In Catalonia, Spain, the Christmas presents are pooped out by a smiley-faced piece of wood named "Shitting Log."

# They serve beer in McDonald's in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and The Netherlands.

# In 2005, Spain legalized same-sex marriage.

# In Spain, it is illegal to drive in flip flops.

# Spain doesn't have any laws prohibiting public nudity.

# Prostitutes in Spain, like highway workers, need to wear reflective vests to prevent accidents.

# It is illegal to dog walk with more than eight dogs in the streets of Madrid.

# In Barcelona, it's illegal to wear a bikini except on the beach.

# In 2013, Spain had more unemployment (27.2 percent) than the United States had during the Great Depression (25 percent).

# Spain accounts for 43 percent of olive oil production in the world.

# Spain is the world's second-largest producer of saffron after Iran.

# Spain is the only banana producing country in Europe.

# Throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century, Spain was the leading power of Europe, a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions and becoming the leading maritime power in the world.

# In 2013, Spain was the world's third most-visited country.

# Spain has more tourists than its citizens. In 2016, 75 million people visited Spain, whereas only 46 million live there.

# In Spain, more than 16,000 religious festivals are known to involve animal cruelty. Around 60,000 animals die on them annually.

# The Iberian lynx, the world's most endangered cat species, exists only in the Spanish wild.

# In Spain, Spanish rice is unknown.

# In Spain, the Sagrada Familia church has been under construction for more than 130 years and is only scheduled to be complete by 2026.

# One of the amazing facts about Spain is that the La Sagrada Familia would take longer than the Great Pyramid of Egypt to complete.

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

# Christopher Columbus has a direct descendant alive today. He is a Spanish noble.

# In Spain, slandering or defaming the Royal Family can carry a prison sentence of up to two years.

# In Spain, there is a liver monument, which is called "the silent and unselfish organ."

# In 2015, Spanish workers destroyed a Neolithic tomb which was 6,000 years old, mistaking it for a broken picnic table. They replaced it with a "better" picnic table.

# It was around 35,000 years ago when modern humans first arrived in Iberia (now Spain), on foot from the North.

# Scientists discovered a tooth from a distant human ancestor over 1 million years old in Spain in 2007.

# There are two major exclaves in Spain, Ceuta, and Melilla, in mainland Africa.

# Alfonso XIII of Spain was the youngest king ever since he became king the day he was born.

# The Tower of Hercules, in Spain, built in the first century and still active, is the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world.

# After 1900 years, two Roman dams in Spain are still in operation.

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

# In World War 1 and World War 2, Spain was neutral but experienced a civil war (1936 to 1939) that killed more than 500,000 people.

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

# Joan Pujol Garcia, a Spanish double agent, had the unusual distinction of receiving an Iron Cross from the Germans and an MBE from the British during World War 2.

# The Spanish Flu didn't start in Spain. Entire Europe was at war and the news was strictly censored so that Spanish newspapers were the most accurate source of information about the Spanish flu.

# In 2002, Britain accidentally invaded Spain. Around 20 Royal Marines disembarked in Spain for 5 minutes instead of Gibraltar until the mistake was recognized and they all withdrew.

# Since 1641, Catalonia has declared independence 4 times in history.

# Of all the countries celebrating an independence day, 58 are independent of the United Kingdom, 26 are independent of France, 21 are independent of Russia, and 21 are independent of Spain.

# Initially, the Eiffel Tower was planned for Barcelona but the project was rejected.

# A small town in Spain, on the brink of financial ruin, bet on the biggest lottery in the world in 2011, and won.

# Spain and Portugal are connected by a zip-line that is 720 meters (2,365 feet) and is 60 seconds long.

# In Spain, there is a 47-story skyscraper that does not have an elevator.

# An abandoned airport in Spain, which cost €1bn to build, received only one bid for €10,000 after going up for auction in 2015.

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

# Around 1,400 years ago the quill pen was believed to have originated in Spain.

# In Spain, there is a town where 700 people hold the surname "Japon" because they are descendants of samurai of the 17th century who lived thereafter returning to Japan from an embassy.

# Japan offered 40 million pounds in 1894 to buy the Philippines from Spain.

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

# In 1971, the body of Evita Peron was exhumed and flown to Spain, where ex-president of Argentina Juan Peron and his new wife kept the corpse in their dining room.

If you are interested then check out our "Facts About France"

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