Spain

Iberia was a patchwork of peoples — Iberians, Celts, Phoenician and Greek colonies — before Rome conquered it as Hispania, leaving cities, roads, law, and the Latin from which Spanish descends. Visigothic rule followed the Western Empire's collapse, and in 711 a Muslim army from North Africa overran almost the whole peninsula. Al-Andalus, centred on Córdoba, became one of medieval Europe's most advanced societies, and the northern Christian kingdoms spent centuries pushing south in the campaigns later called the Reconquista.

In 1492 the last Muslim state, the Emirate of Granada, fell; Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the "Catholic Monarchs", had united the crowns by marriage; Jews were expelled; and Columbus, sailing under Castile, reached the Americas. The sixteenth-century empire of Charles V and Philip II brought vast silver wealth and Habsburg entanglement in Europe's wars, followed by long decline. The Bourbons took the throne after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14).

The nineteenth century brought the loss of most of the American colonies, Napoleonic invasion, and repeated civil conflict. The Second Republic of 1931 gave way to the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), won by General Francisco Franco, whose dictatorship lasted until his death in 1975. King Juan Carlos I oversaw a rapid transition to democracy; Spain joined NATO and the European Community in the 1980s, decentralised into 17 autonomous communities, and has since wrestled with economic booms and busts and the unresolved question of Catalan independence, which peaked with an unauthorised referendum in 2017.

Spain is a country of regions, and identity is often felt first as Catalan, Basque, Galician, Andalusian, or Castilian. Regional languages, festivals, and cuisines are living, not folkloric, and politics is coloured throughout by the balance between the centre and the autonomous communities.

Daily rhythms run late: lunch after 2pm, dinner after 9pm, and an evening paseo or stroll. The sobremesa, lingering at the table in conversation after a meal, is a valued institution. Roman Catholicism shaped the calendar — Holy Week processions, patron-saint ferias, and pilgrimages like the Camino de Santiago — though regular practice has fallen sharply.

Football is a national passion, with Real Madrid and Barcelona a rivalry that is also regional and political. Flamenco, born in Andalusia among Roma and other communities, is the best-known art form, alongside a painting tradition running from Velázquez and Goya to Picasso, Dalí, and Miró.

About 48 million people live in Spain, heavily concentrated in Madrid, the Mediterranean arc, and the islands, while much of the rural interior — "empty Spain" — has lost population for decades. Home ownership is high, families are close, and adult children often live with parents longer than in northern Europe, partly for economic reasons.

The economy leans on services and tourism — Spain is among the most visited countries on Earth — along with cars, agriculture, and renewable energy. Unemployment has long run higher than the EU average, especially for the young, and housing costs in Madrid, Barcelona, and tourist hotspots have become a pressing grievance, prompting protests against short-term holiday lets.

Life is social and street-oriented: plazas, terraces, markets, and long weekends, with August a near-universal holiday month.

Spanish food is regional to its core. The south gave the world gazpacho and salmorejo, fried fish, and sherry; Valencia is the home of paella, properly made with rabbit, chicken, and beans; the Basque Country and Navarre are a culinary powerhouse of pintxos, seafood, and Michelin stars; Galicia means octopus (pulpo a feira) and shellfish; and the interior is country of roast lamb and suckling pig, chickpea stews, and jamón ibérico from acorn-fed pigs.

Tapas culture — small plates with a drink, sometimes free with it in cities like Granada and León — is the sociable way to eat. Tortilla de patatas, croquetas, patatas bravas, boquerones, and pan con tomate are everywhere.

Spain is one of the world's great wine countries — Rioja and Ribera del Duero for reds, Rías Baixas for Albariño, Jerez for sherry, and Catalonia for Cava — and the world's largest producer of olive oil.

Barcelona offers Gaudí's Sagrada Família and Park Güell, the Gothic Quarter, and the beach; Madrid the Prado, Reina Sofía, and Thyssen art museums and the Retiro. Andalusia holds the Moorish trio — the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita of Córdoba, and Seville's Alcázar and Giralda — plus the white villages of the Sierra and the horse-and-flamenco culture of Jerez.

Elsewhere: the Roman aqueduct and fairy-tale Alcázar of Segovia, the walled city of Ávila, Toledo's layered Christian-Muslim-Jewish heritage, Salamanca's sandstone university, Bilbao's Guggenheim, and Santiago de Compostela at the end of the pilgrim road. San Sebastián's shell-shaped bay is one of Europe's finest urban beaches.

The landscapes range widely: the Pyrenees and the Picos de Europa for hiking, the volcanic badlands of Lanzarote and the peak of Teide on Tenerife, the wetlands of Doñana, the deserts of Almería, and thousands of kilometres of Mediterranean and Atlantic coast.