Ghost Villages: La España Vacía
While Spain’s urban centres become ever more crowded, its villages are quickly emptying. Some have no residents left.
Mislata, Valencia, with more than 21,500 people per km2, is the most densely populated urban area on the continent. But there is a dramatic divide between the towns and the country. Despite places like Mislata, Spain is one of the lowest-density countries in Europe. There are large areas of Spain which are emptier than Lapland, in the north of Finland. Drive for an hour away from any of the cities, or hop on a cross-country train, and you will see that Spain, despite its bustling cities, is mostly a deserted land.
This hasn’t always been the case. Most developed countries are familiar with the flight to the cities which began with the industrial revolution and has continued since. But until the 1960s Spain was behind other countries in this regard. For a long time after the civil war ended in 1939 and Franco’s ultra-conservative regime took over, the county’s economy and culture stood still. People continued an agrarian lifestyle, seeing no need to move. In Valencia they picked oranges. In the Canary Islands, bananas. The Catholic Church played its part in this stagnation, keeping a stranglehold on education, social life and chastising any urge for change or progress.
