A FEW FACTS

Area: 504,750 km2

Population: 46.157.822 (INE 2008)

Languages: Official language, Spanish (also called Castillian

Catalan, Galician Valencian and Basque ( They are also official languages in the

autonomous regions of Cataluña, Galicia, Valencia and Basque Country

respectively)

Religion: Catholic

Capital: Madrid

Form of government: Constitutional Monarchy

Head of Estate: King Juan Carlos I

President of Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Apart from the peninsula, it

includs the Balearic Islands

in the Mediterranean Sea,

the Canary Islands the cities

of Ceuta and Melilla in

Northern Africa.

It is the 3th European country in extension and the 5th in population .

Its landscapes offer an extraordinary variety with green fields,

mountains, valleys, rivers and beaches.

This land is and has been for millennia one of the cultural centers of Europe. Many of its cities, and even more lost enclaves, are home to monuments of exceptional historical and artistic value, not to mention the extraordinary natural scenery that this ancient peninsula has.

The much used topic of "Spain is different" raises a question " from what is different ?

it is a country full of contrasts, beginning with its climate and landscape. But we sometimes find all these contrasts in a very small area, such as the province of Granada, which has the country's highest peak, Mulhacén, covered with snow, and its coast faces Africa.

IMPORTANT SPANISH CITIES

Barcelona Córdoba

Madrid Granada

Segovia Sevilla

Sevilla Santiago

Valencia Madrid

A Coruña Bilbao

FOLK TRADITIONS AND INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS

San Fermín, Pamplona

Flamenco, April Fair in Sevilla Brotherhoods, Holy Week in Sevilla

Las Fallas de San José, Valencia

Carnival

The Spanish cuisine is enriched by the contributions of the various regions of the country. It is strongly influenced by the people who conquered its territory.

SPANISH CUISINE

In the last decades sport has become a very important part of our

everyday life.

The World Cup has been the last of the successes and we are still

celebrating it.

The turning point was the 22 medals that we won in the Barcelona

Olympic Games in 1992.

And now we can also complete and win in basketball (Gasol), tennis

(Nadal), Formula 1 (Alonso), motorbikes (Lorenzo).

Children and teenagers are now involved in many different sports

even if football for us still is the most important sport. Everybody

knows how to play it and every Spanish person is, or so they think,

an expert in the field.

Galicia...