The Kingdom of Spain includes the Canary Islands, the Balearics and two autonomous North African cities, Ceuta and Melilla. The Spanish also lay claim to a few rocks and islets on the Moroccan coast, including the unpopulated Isla Perejil (Parsley Island), which was briefly occupied by Moroccan soldiers in 2002. The soldiers were, in turn, captured by Spanish commandos, with support from the navy and the air force. The island is now deserted once more.
It is estimated that 761,000 Britons live permanently in Spain.
Spain shares its national motto - Plus Ultra ("Further Beyond") - with Sir Francis Bacon, the Colombian navy and Malden Catholic High School in Massachusetts.
In the eighth century, virtually all of the Iberian peninsula fell under the control of the Umayyad Islamic empire. Although this dominance slowly receded over subsequent centuries, mass conversions meant that Muslims outnumbered Christians in the Muslim-controlled areas. The full reconquering of Spain by Catholic monarchs was not completed until 1492.
The 1936 nationalist military revolt that touched off the Spanish civil war was begun with the broadcast of the words, "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear." General Francisco Franco's first move was to seize control of Spain's Moroccan territory as his launch pad.
Spanish flu, the name commonly given to the influenza strain that killed between 20 million and 100 million people in the 1918 pandemic, actually originated in Kansas in the US. Spain was merely the country it had spread to when it first came to widespread public attention.
Every January 24 in the tiny Spanish village of Manganeses de la Polvorosa, they throw a goat out of the church tower to celebrate the feast of St Vincent the Martyr. Well, not every year - it was banned for being cruel in 1992, but reinstated in 1998 after protests by villagers. Then the practice was banned by the Spanish government in 2001. So actually Manganeses de la Polvorosa is now best known as the place where they don't throw a goat out of the church tower any more. But they used to, and they might again. Just so you know, the goats didn't die - the villagers caught them in a blanket - but they didn't exactly volunteer for the mission either.
Contrary to what you might have heard, the rain in Spain falls mainly on the northern Atlantic coast. Here the average annual rainfall is between 800-1500mm, compared with a national average of just 640mm. It is not at all uncommon for Mediterranean Spain to receive less than 250mm.
The Spanish Armada that set off to invade England in 1588 consisted of 130 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers. Only 67 ships and 10,000 men managed to make it back to Spain.
Spanish people are christened with two surnames: their father's first surname and their mother's first surname, with the father's first surname coming first. As a result, only the male surnames survive the process.
When you answer the phone in Spain you say "Digame" which means "Tell me."
The term "Spanish practices", which refers to long-standing but unofficial working arrangements between employees and employers, such as routinely paying overtime for normal working hours, has nothing to do with Spain. In fact no one seems to know exactly why it's called that.
Juan Carlos I has been king and head of state since Franco's death in 1975. He is also the hereditary king of Jerusalem.
The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal set up by the Spanish monarchy in 1478 to police the orthodoxy of recent converts to Christianity, mostly Jews desperate to escape persecution. Only later did the Inquisition take to burning Protestants and witches. It was not finally abolished until 1834.
The word tapas means lid in Spanish. According to legend the original tapas were slices of bread that drinkers put over their glasses to keep the flies out of their sherry.
