More than half a century after mass tourism began in Spain, the country is among the most visited of the world. Around of 80 million people They arrive in Spain annually, a figure only surpassed by France (+89,000,000). The number is impressive, especially if we compare the scale of its two immediate pursuers, the United States and China. And the reason is simple: 8,000 kilometers of coastline, a wonderful climate and years and years of tourist tradition behind it, with all that this implies in terms of infrastructure.
The international nature of the average tourist has caused numerous breakdowns of heads to the authorities during the last years. Spain has tried to attract as many European, Asian or American travelers as possible in a context of tourism recession. During the pandemic parenthesis this was a complicated mission. It was then time to raise the flag of “national tourism”, one that has been flying for two consecutive summers.
But what to see in Spain beyond the beaches once crowded by Germans or English? The question has crossed the minds of millions of Spaniards in recent seasons. To answer it, Musement has elaborated this map in which it analyzes the number and quality of scores received by more than 4,500 “points of interest“, that is, attractions and monuments, spread throughout the country. And from this data they have chosen one for each province.
An advantage and a problem of this approach: it is useful to know what image the average Spaniard produces when he thinks of places like Palencia or Jaén; but at the same time it summarizes the many positive attributes of each province in a popularity contest. The attractions or monuments numbered here are not necessarily the most interesting, satisfying or beautiful in each place. They are the most famous. It is a personal matter to assess its degree of recommendability.
(Musement)
If we look at the palette of colors and categories, the north stands out for its large volume of “cathedrals, churches and basilicas.” From the ubiquitous Sagrada Familia of Barcelona to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedralvisiting other highlights of the Camino, be it the Cathedral of León, the Sanctuary of Covadonga, the Cathedral of Burgos, the Co-Cathedral of Santa María de la Redonda or the Basilica del Pilar. Other unique architectural elements sneak in through there, such as Gaudí’s Capricho (Comillas), the Royal Palace of Olite or the Seu Vella.
There are also outstanding landscapes: from the La Florida Park in Vitoria to the imposing Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park, surrounding the Sil Canyons, the Sanabria Lake or the Palentina Mountain Natural Park in between (some of them in the center of what has come to be called Empty Spain). The natural or national parks are the protagonists of Andalusia, starting with Doñana, continuing through Sierra Nevada and ending with Sierra de Cazorla (in Jaén).
Otherwise, a little of everything. From urban monuments of very historical rank (the main squares of Salamanca, Trujillo, Seville or Teruel, although in this case “del Torico”; the Hanging Houses of Cuenca) to heritages of civilizations that thousands of years ago forged the present character of Spain (the Roman theater of Mérida, the wall of Ávila, the Aqueduct of Segovia, the New Bridge of Ronda). Also, not surprisingly, there are a lot of fortresses and palaces fortified: from the Peñarroya Castle in Ciudad Real to the famous Alhambra in Granada, passing through the Alcázar of the Christian Monarchs, a surprising winner in the province of Córdoba, also home to the mosque.
There is even room for modernity: whether in the form of the City of Arts and Sciences, Dalí’s Theatre-Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Portaventura or of Loro Parque in Tenerife. A little bit of everything. Not always the most notable thing about each province, but a good way to discover corners of the geography that are still hidden for the Spaniards themselves.
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*An earlier version of this article was published in September 2021
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