The Spain course
Facts about Spain, for your next trip
Ten topics, two timed rounds each, played from the top of this page to the bottom. The next round deals itself the moment the last one lands, so the course keeps its own pace rather than waiting to be clicked through.
Capital Madrid · Europe · 10 topics · 20 rounds · 80 questions · 20 seconds each
Spain occupies most of the Iberian Peninsula and spent eight centuries under partial Muslim rule before becoming the first global empire of the modern age. Today it is a decentralised democracy of 17 autonomous communities, several with their own language and a strong sense of separate nationhood.
After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in western Europe. The Meseta Central, a plateau averaging around 650 meters, covers much of the interior and is ringed by ranges including the Pyrenees and the Sierra Nevada. That elevation gives the interior hot summers and cold winters, while the Mediterranean coast stays mild and the Atlantic north is green and rainy enough to look more like Ireland than Andalusia.
Madrid sits almost exactly in the geographic center and is the political and financial capital, while Barcelona faces the Mediterranean as the center of Catalonia. Seville, Granada and Córdoba hold the great monuments of Islamic Spain in the south, Valencia gave the world paella, and Bilbao and San Sebastián anchor the Basque north. Spain receives more than 80 million foreign visitors a year, second only to France, most of them heading for the Mediterranean and island beaches, the Andalusian cities, or Barcelona and Madrid.
- Population
- 48 million
- Area
- 505,990 km²
- Currency
- Euro (€)
- Official language
- Spanish, plus co-official regional languages
- Divisions
- 17 communities, 2 autonomous cities
- Highest point
- Teide, 3,715 m
Spain · Geography
Geography of Spain
After Switzerland, Spain is the most mountainous country in western Europe: a plateau averaging around 650 metres fills the interior, and the Pyrenees, the Sierra Nevada and the Cantabrian range ring it. The second round leaves the land for the cities, which sit almost entirely on the coast or on that plateau, with very little in between.
Commonly asked
- How big is Spain, and what is the land like?
- About 505,990 km², most of it the Meseta Central, a plateau averaging roughly 650 metres and ringed by mountains. That height gives the interior hot summers and cold winters, while the Mediterranean coast stays mild and the Atlantic north is green and wet.
- What is the capital of Spain, and what are the other big cities?
- Madrid, sitting almost exactly in the geographic centre and on the plateau. Barcelona faces the Mediterranean as the centre of Catalonia, Valencia and Seville anchor the east and south, and Bilbao and San Sebastián hold the Basque north.
- Where are the Balearic and Canary Islands?
- The Balearics lie in the Mediterranean east of the mainland. The Canaries are volcanic islands in the Atlantic off northwest Africa, and Teide on Tenerife is the highest point in Spain at 3,715 metres.
Spain · History
History of Spain
Roman Hispania, then eight centuries in which Muslim and Christian rule shared the peninsula, then an empire funded by American silver. The second round covers the century that followed the loss of that empire: civil war, dictatorship, and a return to democracy inside three years of Franco’s death.
Commonly asked
- What was Al-Andalus?
- The name for the Muslim-ruled territories of the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the conquest of 711. Córdoba became one of the largest and most learned cities in the world, and the last of it, the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, fell in 1492.
- What happened in 1492?
- Granada fell to Castile and Aragon in January, ending Muslim rule on the peninsula, and Columbus sailed west under Castilian sponsorship in August. Spain’s Jews were expelled the same year.
- When did Spain become a democracy?
- Francisco Franco died in November 1975 after 36 years in power. Free elections followed in 1977, the constitution was approved by referendum in 1978, and Spain joined the European Community in 1986.
Spain · Language
Languages of Spain
Spanish has more native speakers than any language except Mandarin, and Spaniards mostly call it castellano rather than español. It is not the only language of the country: Catalan, Galician and Basque are each co-official where they are spoken, and Basque is related to nothing else on earth.
Commonly asked
- Are español and castellano different languages?
- No, they are two names for the same language. Castellano is the usual name inside Spain, where naming it after Castile distinguishes it from the country’s other languages rather than from anything abroad.
- Is Catalan a dialect of Spanish?
- No. Catalan is a separate Romance language, descended from Latin in parallel with Spanish rather than from it, and it is spoken across Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics by millions of people.
- What is Basque, and where does it come from?
- Euskara is a language isolate: it has no known relatives anywhere, and it predates the arrival of Indo-European languages in Europe. It is co-official in the Basque Country and part of Navarre.
Spain · Culture
Culture of Spain
A run of painters that goes El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí and Miró, and a novel from 1605 that is usually called the first modern one. Alongside them sits the ordinary shape of a Spanish day, which starts late, eats late and treats the street as somewhere to spend the evening.
Commonly asked
- Who wrote Don Quixote?
- Miguel de Cervantes. The first part appeared in 1605 and the second in 1615, and it is widely described as the first modern novel.
- Where does flamenco come from?
- Andalusia, out of Gitano communities in particular, bringing song, dance and guitar together. UNESCO added it to its intangible heritage list in 2010.
- Why do Spaniards eat dinner so late?
- Partly the clock. Spain sits on the same meridian as Britain but has kept central European time since the 1940s, so the working day and the meals that hang off it slid an hour later than the sun.
Spain · Economy
Economy of Spain
One of the larger economies in the eurozone, weighted heavily towards services, with tourism alone worth more than a tenth of output. Behind the visitors sit car plants, the biggest olive oil harvest in the world, and a build-out of wind and solar on land that has plenty of both.
Commonly asked
- How important is tourism to Spain?
- Very. Spain takes more than 80 million foreign visitors a year, second only to France, and tourism contributes over a tenth of national output.
- What does Spain produce besides tourism?
- Cars, for one: Spain is among Europe’s largest vehicle manufacturers. It is also the world’s biggest producer of olive oil and a major exporter of wine, fruit and vegetables.
- What currency does Spain use?
- The euro. Notes and coins entered circulation in 2002, replacing the peseta.
Spain · Politics
How Spain is governed
A constitutional monarchy where the king is ceremonial and the prime minister answers to a two-chamber parliament. The 1978 constitution then handed real power downwards, to seventeen autonomous communities and two autonomous cities, and how far that power should run is the argument Spanish politics keeps returning to.
Commonly asked
- What are the Cortes Generales?
- Spain’s national parliament, made up of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. The government needs the confidence of the Congress, and King Felipe VI’s role as head of state is ceremonial.
- How is Spain divided?
- Into 17 autonomous communities plus the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast. Each has its own parliament and government, with powers over health and education, and the Basque Country and Navarre collect their own taxes.
- Why does Catalonia keep coming up?
- Because the reach of regional autonomy has never been settled. Catalonia held an independence referendum in 2017 that Spanish courts had ruled illegal, and the question has shaped national coalitions ever since.
Spain · Nature & Wildlife
Nature and wildlife in Spain
Spain holds more biodiversity than almost anywhere else in Europe, sitting between two continents with everything from alpine peaks to semi-desert inside one border. About a third of the land carries some protected status, spread across sixteen national parks.
Commonly asked
- What is the Iberian lynx, and why is it famous?
- A tufted-eared wild cat found only on the Iberian Peninsula, living mostly on rabbits. It was the most endangered cat in the world in the early 2000s, below a hundred animals, and captive breeding has since lifted the population past two thousand.
- Where is Doñana, and why does it matter?
- In the southwest, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Its wetlands are a critical stopover for birds migrating between Europe and Africa, which is why drought and water extraction around it are a recurring national argument.
- Are there bears and volcanoes in Spain?
- Both. A few hundred brown bears live in the Cantabrian mountains in the north, and the Canary Islands are volcanic, with Teide on Tenerife and an eruption on La Palma as recently as 2021.
Spain · Food & Cuisine
Spanish food
Spanish cooking is regional before it is national: rice on the Mediterranean, bean stews on the wet northern coast, cured pork and olive oil almost everywhere. The second round is about how it is eaten, which in much of the country means small plates and more than one bar in an evening.
Commonly asked
- Where does paella come from?
- Valencia, where it is a rice dish cooked flat in a wide shallow pan over a fire. The Valencian original uses rabbit, chicken and beans rather than the seafood most foreigners expect.
- What are tapas?
- Small plates served with a drink. In much of Spain they are a way of moving between bars over an evening rather than sitting down to one long meal, and what arrives varies sharply by city.
- What is jamón ibérico?
- Cured ham from black Iberian pigs, the best of it from animals fattened on acorns. It is the most prized single product of Spanish food and is sliced thin and eaten on its own.
Spain · Landmarks
Landmarks of Spain
A basilica that has been a building site since 1882, a Nasrid palace above Granada, and a cathedral dropped inside a mosque. Spain has one of the longest UNESCO world heritage lists of any country, and the second round places the sites in the cities that explain them.
Commonly asked
- What is the Sagrada Família?
- Antoni Gaudí’s basilica in Barcelona, under construction since 1882 and still unfinished. It draws millions of visitors a year, and Park Güell and Casa Batlló carry his work through the rest of the city.
- Where is the Alhambra?
- On a hill above Granada in Andalusia. It is the finest surviving palace and fortress complex of Islamic Spain, built under the Nasrid dynasty and kept after Granada fell in 1492.
- What is the Mezquita of Córdoba?
- A great mosque of Al-Andalus, a forest of red and white striped arches, with a Renaissance cathedral built into the middle of it after the Christian conquest. Both are still there, in the same building.
Spain · People & Society
People and communities in Spain
About 48 million people, living longer than almost anyone else and having fewer children than almost anyone else. They are also unevenly spread: Madrid, the Mediterranean coast and the Basque belt keep filling while the rural interior empties, and Spaniards have a name for what is left behind.
Commonly asked
- How many people live in Spain?
- Around 48 million. Life expectancy of roughly 84 years is among the highest in the world, and a fertility rate near 1.2 births per woman is among the lowest, so the country is ageing quickly.
- What does la España vaciada mean?
- The emptied Spain: the rural interior that decades of migration to the cities have drained of residents, schools and services. It has become an organised political demand rather than just a description.
- Who moves to Spain?
- Roughly 18 percent of residents were born abroad, with large communities from Morocco, Romania and Latin America. Shared language and faster routes to citizenship make the Latin American path a well-worn one.