Spain is full of stories that feel half like history and half like folklore. From strange old traditions and mathematical masterpieces to cursed towns, shared islands, and places that turned themselves blue, these facts show just how wonderfully unusual the country can be.
Cortés’ Enduring Military Hospital
1. Conquistador Hernán Cortés established a hospital in Mexico City to care for Aztec warriors wounded while fighting the Spanish, and that hospital remains in operation today.
2. The 15th-century Islamic mosaics in Spain’s Alhambra palace demonstrate an almost complete grasp of mathematical logic and exhibit 16 of the 17 types of symmetry identified by modern mathematicians.
3. Each year in Spain the El Colacho baby-jumping festival is held, during which babies lie on a mattress as a masked Devil jumps over them; people believe this repels evil spirits.
4. Spain observes a time zone that does not match most of its geographic position: instead of being on Greenwich Mean Time, it has used Central European Time, one hour ahead, since 1940; some argue this discrepancy produces an unusually late daily schedule.
5. Madrid is home to Sobrino de Botín, one of the world’s longest continuously operating restaurants, which has never closed since it opened in 1725.
6. In the 16th century a Spanish soldier named Gil Pérez claimed he had been teleported from his post in the Philippines to Mexico. He said he knew about the assassination of the governor of the Philippines and was jailed for his claims until a ship from Manila verified them.
7. In Zaragoza, Spain there is a street called Avenida de Super Mario Bros that is named after Super Mario.
8. Gulliver Park is a playground in Valencia, Spain where children and other visitors can climb and slide on a massive play structure shaped like the character Gulliver. This large fiberglass Gulliver turns every visitor into a Lilliputian.
9. To promote the release of Smurfs (2011), the whitewashed village of Juzcar, Spain used 4,000 liters of paint to coat the entire village blue. After the movie was released, residents voted to keep it blue because it had helped increase tourism.
10. The Spanish town Trigueros del Valle recognizes cats and dogs as citizens with equal rights.
Zaragoza’s Lost Tall Tower
11. Spain once had a leaning structure called the Leaning Tower of Zaragoza that was 100 feet taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but it was demolished in 1892.
12. Manuel Romasanta, Spain’s first documented serial killer, was raised as a girl until he was 6 because his parents thought he was female.
13. Juan Carlos I, the former King of Spain, once told Hugo Chavez (Former President of Venezuela) to shut up (¿¡Por qué no te callas!?) after the Venezuelan leader called a former Spanish prime minister a “fascist” and “less human than snakes.”
14. Spain is the only country in the world with a monument to the liver called “The silent and unselfish organ.”
15. In the Americas, Spanish conquistadors did not appreciate platinum’s rarity or value because they only cared about gold; counterfeiters used platinum to make fake gold and silver, so the Spaniards dumped any confiscated platinum into the sea to try and combat this forging problem.
16. In 1864 Spain provoked a war with Peru and Chile by seizing an island because its bat poop was a strategic source of an ingredient that was then important for gunpowder.
17. About 700 people living in the town of Coria del Rio in Spain descend from 17th-century samurai who stayed there after a Japanese embassy was established, and they bear the surname “Japón,” originally “Hasekura de Japón.”
18. Trasmoz in Spain is the only Spanish town officially cursed and excommunicated by the Catholic Church, and that excommunication has never been revoked.
19. Athletic Bilbao is a Spanish soccer team that since 1912 has signed only players born or raised in the Basque Country, which is home to less than 7% of Spain’s population; despite this, the club is among Spain’s most successful teams and is one of the few never to have been relegated.
20. The city of Barcelona manages its pigeon population by mixing birth control chemicals into the birdseed.
Ancient Monk That Still Moves
21. Four hundred fifty years ago, King Charles V of Spain commissioned an automaton in the form of a mechanical monk to give thanks to God for saving his son. It is one of the earliest robots ever made by humans and still works today.
22. Pheasant Island is owned by two countries: it belongs to Spain for the first six months of the year and to France for the other six months.
23. Since 1910, the Pamplona Running of the Bulls has had 15 deaths. For safety there are 16 posts each staffed with at least one doctor and one nurse, and about 20 ambulances. A person who is gored can be stabilized and transported to a hospital in less than ten minutes.
24. After nearly all of their players were found to have no disability, Spain’s Paralympic basketball team was ordered to return the gold medals they won in Sydney in 2000.
25. In Madrid, you can have your hair cut by a barber named Alberto Olmedo who uses a samurai sword, six pairs of scissors at once, and a blowtorch to cut hair.
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