Spain is a country that dances to its own rhythm. Known for its vibrant culture, sunny beaches, and passionate people, it holds a history and a collection of quirks that are uniquely its own. From world-changing explorations to peculiar traditions, Spain's story is woven with threads of immense global influence and charming idiosyncrasy. Prepare to see this Mediterranean nation in a whole new light as we explore eight facts that reveal the surprising and multifaceted soul of Spain.
1. Spain funneled the foods of the New World into Europe.
We have chocolate thanks to the Spanish. Spain’s adventures in the New World of the Americas brought back culinary firsts in terms of fresh produce that were completely foreign to Europeans. When Columbus arrived, he and his Spanish crew came across turkey, chocolate, corn, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, pineapples, and avocados. Before anyone else got to sample them, it was Spain’s turn first. Thanks to the colonies that the Spaniards established, today we can all enjoy oranges, avocados, cacao, potatoes, and sugar—resources Europeans did not know until the fifteenth century. These new foods, including tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, corn, green beans, peanuts, vanilla, pineapple, and turkey, reshaped the European diet forever. Global patterns of trade were overturned as crops grown in the New World fed growing consumer markets in Europe.
2. It was the world’s first truly global empire.
The Spanish Empire was a significant global power that emerged during the Age of Exploration in the late 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I. It expanded across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, driven by the pursuit of wealth, territory, and the spread of Catholicism, achieving its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries. The administrative structure laid by the Catholic Monarchs across the Atlantic Ocean formed the basis for this empire, which was managed through a system of viceroys. The seventeen-year-old King Carlos I took great interest in Castile's overseas ventures, personally approving Ferdinand Magellan’s proposal in 1519 to sail westward to Asia. This voyage would turn out to be the first to circumnavigate the globe, though Magellan was killed in the Philippines. The empire fostered a rich cultural exchange during its Golden Age but began to decline due to weak leadership, costly wars, and economic troubles, culminating in the independence of most American colonies by the 19th century.
3. The first modern novel was written by a Spanish author.
On January 16, 1605, Miguel de Cervantes' El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha was published. This book is considered by many to be the first modern novel and one of the greatest of all time. The protagonist, Alonso Quixano, is driven mad by reading chivalric romances, adopts the name Don Quixote, and roams La Mancha with his squire Sancho Panza, undertaking challenges that exist in his mind. The episodic, intentionally comedic story satirizes older tales of knights. Cervantes, an avid reader and soldier who lost the use of his left hand in the Battle of Lepanto and was later held captive in Algiers, completed Don Quixote in prison due to irregularities in his government accounts. The novel was republished across Europe and widely read in Spain's American colonies, and its themes of imagination, free will, and reality continue to be analyzed centuries later.
4. Much of Spain was under Muslim control for nearly 800 years.
In 711 Muslim forces invaded and in seven years conquered the Iberian peninsula. Islamic Spain became one of the great Muslim civilisations, reaching its summit with the Umayyad caliphate of Cordova in the tenth century. It was a multi-cultural mix of Muslims, Christians, and Jews who, for much of the time, managed to get along and benefit from each other’s presence, bringing a degree of civilisation to Europe that matched the heights of the Roman Empire. Muslim rule declined after the 10th century and ended in 1492 with the conquest of Granada. The period is divided into several eras: The Dependent Emirate (711-756), The Independent Emirate (756-929), The Caliphate (929-1031), The Almoravid Era (1031-1130), and the period of Decline (1130-1492). The heartland of this rule was Southern Spain or Andalusia.
5. The Spanish national anthem has no official words.
Spain’s ‘Marcha Real’, is one of the few national anthems with no official lyrics at all. It was composed in 1761 by Manuel de Espinosa de los Monteros as a military march for the Spanish Infantry, titled La Marcha Granadera. In the 1770s, King Charles III declared it the official march, and it later became the national anthem. There have been attempts to add words; during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, lyrics by fascist poet José MarÃa Pemán were used, but they were dropped after his death and Spain’s move to democracy. The current version is a word-less 16-bar phrase, with three official arrangements: for orchestra, military band, and organ.
6. Spain hosts the world's biggest annual lottery payout.
The Spanish Christmas Lottery, known as El Gordo, has the largest total payout in the world. Between them, winners receive a whopping €2,240,000,000. A single ticket, or décimo, costs €20 and can be worth €400,000 if it bears the winning number. These tickets come in strips of 10, and when many strips of the same number are sold to a group, it creates the potential for a massive communal jackpot. Most of the first-prize-winning tickets have historically been bought by people in small towns, like those in the province of León.
7. Spain remained officially neutral in both World Wars.
Despite being a major Western country with a warlike history, Spain was not involved in either World War I or World War II. In World War I, Spain was not involved in the entangling alliances that dragged other powers to war, partly due to simmering internal political tensions and recent humiliating military losses from the Spanish-American War. Before World War II, Spain underwent a civil war where Francisco Franco’s Nationalists, aided by fascist Italy and Germany, emerged victorious. Although Franco was ideologically aligned with the Axis and even pitched the idea of Spain joining in 1940, Adolf Hitler demurred and Spain never officially joined. Spain remained officially neutral but did aid the Axis in some ways, partly owing Germany over $200 million for supplies sent during the civil war.
8. A famous Barcelona landmark has been under construction for over a century.
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, one of Spain’s most iconic landmarks, has been under construction for over a century and remains unfinished. Its unfinished state is attributed to a combination of factors, including changes in design, funding challenges, and external events like the Spanish Civil War and the COVID-19 pandemic. The brilliant architect Antoni Gaudà was responsible for its unique design, but his death in 1926 led to the project being passed to other architects with different visions. Funding, which relies on public donations, has been a consistent challenge. Despite the setbacks, it remains a hugely popular tourist attraction, and construction continues with the hope of one day completing this testament to human perseverance.
9. Children await a tooth mouse, not a fairy.
When a child loses a milk tooth in Spain, it’s not a magical fairy that comes to collect it, but a little mouse called Ratoncito Pérez. The legend started as a story written by Luis Coloma, commissioned by Queen MarÃa Cristina for her eight-year-old son, King Alfonso XIII, when he lost a tooth. In the tale, the mouse lives in a box of biscuits in Madrid, collects children’s teeth, and leaves a coin under their pillow. The story was meant to teach the young king about brotherhood. There are regional variations: in Catalonia, there’s Angelet (the little angel); in the Basque Country, Maritxu Teilatukoa (a little ladybird who lives on the roof); and in Cantabria, a tooth squirrel called L’Esquilu de los dientis.
10. It’s home to the world’s biggest food fight festival.
La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol near Valencia. Thousands of people gather for this 'World's Biggest Food Fight,' where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown. The tomatoes are brought in by truck from Extremadura. Technically, the festival begins only after someone climbs a greased, two-story pole to reach a ham at the top, but in practice, it often starts anyway with the firing of water cannons at noon. The fight lasts one hour, after which fire trucks clean the streets using water from a Roman aqueduct. The acidity of the tomato helps leave the ground clean.
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