Property for sale in Galicia Spain

270.€ Oleiros

The abandoned village of O Penso, in northwest Spain, is for sale for about $230, 000. The last resident died a decade ago. The village includes 100 acres with half a dozen houses, two sprawling farms with room for 70 cattle and a stand-alone bread-making kitchen. Lauren Frayer for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Lauren Frayer for NPR

The abandoned village of O Penso, in northwest Spain, is for sale for about $230, 000. The last resident died a decade ago. The village includes 100 acres with half a dozen houses, two sprawling farms with room for 70 cattle and a stand-alone bread-making kitchen.

Lauren Frayer for NPR

Every August, Spain's countryside comes alive with fiestas.

A jolly trombone player prances through a crowd of revelers in Cantalejo, a small town about 1 1/2 hours' drive north of Madrid. But the hubbub is deceiving — because hardly anyone actually lives here. People come one week a year to party in the villages of their ancestors. During the other 51 weeks, towns like this are deserted.

"There was a time when this place was growing! But not anymore. This pueblo is dying, " says Felix Sacristan, who's 55 and unemployed, living in his late grandfather's house. "The only ones left are the elderly. There are lots of abandoned homes."

It makes for cheap housing, he says.

Like much of Spain's central meseta table plateau, this land is dusty and the climate is severe. People joke it's like nine months of winter and three months of fiery hell.

"This land used to be for cereals, but it's difficult to grow anything else, " Sacristan says. "And who wants to be a farmer these days now, anyway?"

In northern Europe, the Industrial Revolution pulled people to big cities centuries ago. But in Spain, that migration happened much later — in the mid-20th century. The first wave occurred after the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s; the second, after Spain's military dictatorship ended in the late 1970s.

Elderly residents gather in a dying village in the Sierra Francia region, northwest of Madrid. Lauren Frayer for NPR hide caption

toggle caption Lauren Frayer for NPR

Elderly residents gather in a dying village in the Sierra Francia region, northwest of Madrid.

Lauren Frayer for NPR

Now there's been a third exodus, amid the recent economic crisis. But it's not just on Spain's harsh central plans. Even villages in the country's most fertile northwest region, Galicia, are being depopulated. The lush Galician landscape once supported Spain's highest population density, and half of all Spanish villages — some 3, 500 hamlets — are located there.


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Roberto Studio Av. Juarez Hotel Galicia Torreon, Original Vintage Postcard
Entertainment Memorabilia (Roberto Studio)
  • Categories: Foreign Countries,Mexico, Hotels
  • Type: Chrome
  • Size: 3.5 x 5.5 (9 x 14 cm)
  • Publisher: Roberto Studio
Prints Online Framed Print of Label, Gran Hotel Ferrocarrilana, San Roque, Spain
Home (Prints Online)
  • FRAMED PRINT You are purchasing one 22x18 inch (56x46cm) Framed Print with Black Satin with Off-White Digital Mat. Estimated image size 288x286mm
  • Wooden frame and print with digital mat. Overall outside dimensions are 22x18 inch (559x457mm). Finished back features brown backing paper, hanging bracket and corner...
  • Artwork Description Luggage label from the Hotel Ferrocarrilana, San Roque de Ribadeo, Lugo, Galicia, northern Spain. Date 20th century.
  • For any queries regarding this choice of artwork please contact Prints Online quoting Reference 7198755
  • Artwork chosen by Prints Online. (c) Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 -

Q&A

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Where can one find properties for sale in Spain?

One can find properties for sale in Spain by visiting websites such as Spain Houses, Kyero, Buy Sell Rent Spain, and Think Spain. One can also find properties for sale by contacting a realtor in the area of Spain they are looking at.


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