This document provides information about Spain and its autonomous communities, cities, historical figures, and culture. Spain is located in Europe and borders France and Portugal. It has 19 autonomous communities including islands. The capital is Madrid. Key cities described include Barcelona, known for Antoni Gaudi's architecture, and Bilbao, home to the Guggenheim Museum. Historical figures discussed are the Catholic Monarchs, Christopher Columbus, writers Cervantes and Lorca, and painters Velazquez, Goya, and Picasso. Spanish culture, traditions, and stereotypes are also summarized.

2. SPAIN, OUR COUNTRY
Spain is settled in the
European continent. It
limits with France and
Portugal.
Most of Spain is
surrounded by water, so we
have the most beautiful
seaside of Europe.
The capital of Spain is
Madrid.
Spain has 19 autonomous
communities, two of them
are islands, Canarias
Islands and Baleares
Islands.
Ceuta and Melilla are
communities too but they
are in the African
continent.

3. EXTREMADURA
• Extremadura is our community.
It is on the west of Spain. It
consists on two provinces:
Cáceres and Badajoz. They are
both the biggest pronvinces in
Spain.
• The capital of Extremadura is
Mérida, a Roman city.
• Extremadura has a
mediterranean climate, so it
hardly ever rains excepting in
the north of Extremadura.

4. Some photos of Plasencia

5. The most
important
cities of our
country.

6. MADRID
Madrid is the capital of Spain and its
largest and most populated city. Seat
of government, and residence of the
Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the
political, economic and cultural
centre of Spain.
Madrid is located in the
centre of Spain.
Retiro Park
Fountain of Cibeles
Gran Vía
Puerta de Alcalá.
Royal Palace of Madrid
This city is known because of its museums
such as: Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía
Museum, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza
Museum.
Madrid is also known for its active
shopping and nightlife.
Its landmarks include the Royal
Palace; the Royal Theatre; El
Retiro park,

7. BARCELONA
Barcelona is a Spanish city, capital of the
autonomous community of Catalonia, and
the second largest city in the country.
Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage,
particularly renowned are the
architectural works of Antoni Gaudí
Catalonian modernista architecture (1885
and 1950) left an important legacy in this
city.
Barcelona is also known for hosting the
1992 Summer Olympics Games.
Its influence in commerce, education,
media, fashion, science, and the arts all
contribute to its status as one of the
world's major global cities.
Casa
Milà
Palau de la Música
Sagrada Família church, Gaudi's masterpiece.
Park Güel, Gaudí

8. BILBAO
It is situated in the north-central part of Spain.
Bilbao has one of the main industrial activities in Spain.
Guggenheim Museum is the most important building in
this city, being one of the most admired works of
contemporary architecture, it includes a wade range of
pieces of modern art.
Guggenheim Museum.
Bascayan government
Arriaga
Theatre

9. SEVILLA
Seville is a Spanish city, the capital and largest one of
the autonomous community of Andalusia and the
province of Seville.
Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis. Then
it was conquered by the Muslim in 712.
In 1519, Fernando de Magallanes departed from Seville
for the first circumnavigation of the Earth.
Sevillana or Flamenco dancer
Torre del oro
Alkazar of Sevilla
Giralda

10. GRANADA
Granada was the last city reconquered by “Los Reyes
Católicos”(Catholic Monarchs) from the Muslims and
nowadays we still preserve The Alhambra, a Moorish
palace.
It is the most renowned building of the Andalusian
Islamic historical legacy with its many cultural
attractions that make Granada a popular destination
among the touristic cities of Spain.
Alhambra
“Patio de los leones”
in La Alhambra
Gardens of the Generalife
(Alhambra)

11. Historica
l
characte
rs.

12. In the XVth century, Spain was
reigned by Isabel I of Castilla and
Fernando II of Aragon, they were
called The Catholic Kings, they
unified part of Spain with their
marriage, they reconquered the
south of the country, which was
controllled by the Muslims, in 1492.
Catholicism was very important for
them and they forced all the
country to become catholic.
They were the kings who let and
paid, the trip of Cristobal Colón to
America, discovering a new
continent to the world.
The Catholic Kings

13. Cristobal Colón was a navigator who
wanted to discover a new way for
travelling to the Indias; In 1492 the
Catholic Kings aproved his trip,
which took more than two months,
And finally he arrived in the current
El Salvador, though he believed he
was in the indias.
Cristobal Colon took three ships: La
Pinta, La Niña y Santamaria
He made four trips but he never
knew the places where he went were
part of another continet.
Cristobal Colón

14. WRITERS
Miguel de Cervantes was a spanish writer
of the XVIth and XVIIth, who is very
known for his book Don Quijote de la
Mancha, which is considered one of the
best books ever written.
He is considered one of the most
important writers in Spain and we can
find a portrait of him in some cents coins.
Federico Garcia Lorca was a poet and
dramatist of the XXth century . Some of
the most famous books he wrote are
Romancero Gitano of poetry and La Casa
de Bernarda Alba of theatre.
He had liberal ideas and he was shooted,
at the beginning of the spanish civil war.

15. PAINTERS
Diego Velazquez was a Spanish painter of the
XVIIth century, who was the main painter of
the court, he had a realistic style and he
used to paint portraits of the royal family.
Francisco de Goya lived in the XVIIIth &
XIXth, he suffered the french invasion and
he painted about this, apart from the royal
family, his style evoluted from realism to a
kind of impressionism.

16. PAINTERS
Pablo Ruiz Picasso is one of the most important
modern painters of the world, he lived in the
XXth century.
He was the creator of cubism, and he took part in
others important movements, he also painted
about spanish civil war, as you can see in Guernica:

17. SCIENTISTS
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was
a doctor specialized in
histology who lived at the
beginnings of the XXth .
He did important discovers
and he won the Nobel
award of Medicine in 1906
glad to a work related with
nerve cells.
Severo Ochoa was another
spanish scientist that lived
that did his most important
works at the 50´s .
He won the Nobel award of
Medicine too(1959) with his
work about the
synthesis of RNA.

18. Sport in Spain in the second half of 20th
century has always been dominated by
football. Other popular sport activities
include basketball, tennis, cycling,
motorcycling, Formula One, water sports...
Spain has also hosted a number of
international events.
Sports
characters.

19. Football is the most popular
sport in Spain. The Spanish
League is considered to be one
of the world's best
competitions. Spanish teams
such as Real Madrid or FC
Barcelona are the most famous
in the country and all over the
world. The Spanish national
football team has been
successful and have qualified for
the FIFA World Cup.
The Spanish ACB is one of the
major European basketball
leagues. Spanish teams such as
Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and
have won international
championships.

20. Spain has produced a
number of tennis champions,
for example, Rafael Nadal is
considered the greatest
Spanish tennis player of all
time. Now , he is the number
one tennis player in the
world.
Spain have hosted four Grand
Prix motorcycle racing events.
Notable Spanish grand prix
motorcycling riders include Dani
Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo or Marc
Márquez. In Formula One the
two world championships of
Fernando Alonso, have made
the sport popular in Spain.

21. Tour of Spain is one of
the most important
cycling events in the
world, together with
the Tour of France and
Tour of Italy racing
tournaments.
The triathlon is
becoming increasingly
known around the world
thanks to Javier Gómez
Noya who is a Spanish
triathlete. He is the
winner of three
Triathlon World
Championships.
The Spain women's national
water polo team and the
Spain women’s national
gymnastic are a minority
sports but too important,
both teams have won the
World Champions.
Or as swimming , that in Spain we have great champions
of the world, for example, Mireia Belmonte, who was the
second Spanish woman to win a medal in the Olympic
Games .

22. Spanish
GastronomyOne of the things that Spain is known worldwide its
for the cuisine, is one of the most wholesome,
traditional and varied. In it we will be able to find the
most varied products, from dishes based on seafood
to meats, rice...
Now let's see some of these wonderful dishes.

23. PAELLA
• Maybe it's the international
dish of Spanish cuisine, and
there is no place where you do
not know.
• Is prepared with cooked rice
accompanied by vegetables,
meats, seafood and saffron,
some of the essential
ingredients are prawns and
squid.

24. GAZPACHO
• This is one of the tastiest dishes
known in Spanish cuisine. It is
composed of a soup ingredients
such as bread, olive oil, vinegar
and vegetables.
TORTILLA DE
PATATAS
Does anyone not know the
omelette? It is the star of the
Spanish cuisine. Not a complicated
dish, but tasty as could be and
inexpensive to prepare. The basic
recipe consists of potatoes, eggs
and salt.

25. EMBUTIDOS
• The embutidos, chorizos, morcillas
and hams are the kings of the
appetizers and snacks that are
consumed throughout the country.
COCIDO
MADRILEÑO
• This is probably the best known of
cooked Spanish cuisine. It is
typical of Madrid. It consists of
beans and various vegetables and
meats.

27. THREE WISE MEN DAY
On January 6th we celebrate the Wise Men Day. Everybody is
looking forward to the presents these kings deliver.
Melchor,Gaspar and Baltasar are beloved by all children.

28. BULLFIGHTING
Bullfighting is considered “ the National celebration”. The
bullfighter is the person who fights with the animal. He
wears a tight suit with golden ornaments and a red cape and
a sword. At the end the bull is killed and the ear is cut to
celebrate the triumph.

29. Semana Santa is the Spanish
name for Easter. Members
of local parishes carry
ornate decorated floats
depicting the Passion of
Christ into the city
cathedral.
Though Seville and Malaga are
the most famous cities for
Semana Santa, the Castilla-
Leon cities of Valladolid and
Leon are also important.
SEMANA SANTA

30. (Pamplona Bull Run)
• The Pamplona Bull Run is a week-long bull
running and bullfighting festival. Every morning
at 8am, the city's brave and the world's
foolhardy run ahead of a group of angry bulls.
The rest of us look on in amazement.
x
SAN FERMIN

31. • The Tomatina Tomato Fight is probably the world's biggest food
fight. Thousands of people gather in the streets of the tiny town of
Buñol, in valencia, to fling tomatoes at each other. The origins of the
festival are unknown and, to most people who like throwing food at
each other, largely unimportant.
TOMATINA

32. FALLAS
• Imagine a bonfire from Guy
Fawkes Night or a Homecoming
and multiply it by a factor of one
hundred: that is Las Fallas.
• Each neighborhood traditionally
gets together to build giant
puppets which are then later set
fire to. There is usually a satirical
nature to these puppets, though
not always.

33. FERIA DE ABRIL
• After all the piety of Easter, the Feria de
Sevilla is that holiday everyone needs to get
over the previous one!
• The Feria de Sevilla is a microcosm of
everything Andalusia is famous for:
flamenco, bullfighting, horses and sherry.
Local well-to-do families spend a lot of
money on renting marquees (casetas in
Spanish) for their friends and families to
enjoy their party.
• The marquees vary greatly; some are open to
the public, many are not.

34. Probably, the main reason why Spain and its people have so
many stereotypes is because it is the European country
after France that has the most tourism.
Due to this fact, there are lots of tourist campaigns all over
the world that promote sunshine, beaches, flamenco dancing,
and bullfighting.
Let’s have a look at some of them:
Stereotypes.

35. The Spanish are lazy and love sleeping the siesta.
Yes, it’s true, the Spanish like sleeping the siesta, but only about 30% of them
can do so. Why?
In the European Union, Spanish people have one of the longest working
timetables and work very hard.
Even though, some of them enjoy this tradition a lot, what is really useful
because even health authorities say that it is healthy, so that the body can
recover from tiredness during the day.

36. Spain is the land of sunshine and beaches.
This is partly truth because although Spain has more sunshine than the rest of
Europe because of its situation, its geography is very varied. There are
plateaus, coasts, huge mountains and valleys too.
And its climate also changes a lot depending on the part of the Spanish territory
we are staying in.

37. Spain is the land of bullfights, flamenco dancing
and party.
As regards, free-time activities and tradition, these are some of the most
important and world known stereotypes affecting Spanish habits.
Bullfighting is no longer considered a sport in Spain, but it is described as a
cultural tradition, result of our history and mixture of cultures.
It happens something really similar with flamenco and party. Actually, they are
an important part of our culture, but not for this reason must we think that all
the inhabitants of our country dance flamenco and spent their whole lives going
out to drink and eat or clubbing.

38. The sangria is not so popular with the Spanish
population, as it is with tourists. We prefer drinking
good red wine from nationally famous DOs, such as La
Ribera del Duero or La Rioja.
But this isn’t just the case of wine. It happens the
same with other products such as ham, whose sells and
exportations have really grown up.
Spain is the land of paella , sangria and ham.
This is probably the
biggest fact that we can
find between all these
stereotypes.
Spanish love good food in
general and paella in
particular and in almost
every part of Spain we can
find it in many different
forms, though the original
comes from Valencia.

39. CONCLUSIONS
Spain is much more interesting than the image that the “facts” and
stereotypes we can easily find in brochures and magazines, paint.
It has a wonderful biodiversity and mixture of cultures which make
it become in a great destination for visitors, that, like you, will
have a great opportunity to find out more about our land.