Useless Spain facts

• Spain has a tradition of holding state-run special Christmas lotteries, which everybody buys even if they are otherwise not interested in lottery at all.

• A Spanish town in Catalonia is named Sort (the Catalan word for luck), so many people try to buy the national Christmas lottery there.

• There is a Spanish village in Andalusia named Guarromán, from Arabic Uādī-r-Rommān ("river of the pomegranates"). However, guarro is a mildly offensive Spanish word roughly translating as "dirty", so Guarromán comes across as "Dirtyman".

• Other Spanish villages and towns have equally questionable names. Examples include Alcantarilla (from the Arabic word for "bridge" and a suffix meaning "small", but in modern Spanish literally translates as "sewer"), El Escorial (presumably from the Latin word for "oak", but in modern Spanish roughly translates as "place of scum" or "place of scumbags") and Venta de Baños (originally meaning "inn near Baños", but it literally translates as "Bathroom Sale").

• There is no tooth fairy in Spain. Instead, it's a tooth mouse.

• In 2002, Spain launched a military operation to force Morocco out of the disputed Isla del Perejil, an islet with no resources or population that is essentially no man's land.

• In 2007, construction accounted for about 43% of Spain's GDP.

• Renting a home in Spain is often more expensive than buying it.

• The Spanish republican flag is one of the few in the world to have the color purple.

• Unlike in the US, most "republicans" in Spain are left-leaning. Might have something to do with the fact that Spain is actually a monarchy.

• Speaking of the monarchy, it has been kicked out of the country twice, only to return after "transition periods".

• Spain has a number of shops commonly known as todo a cien, where everything is supposed to cost 1€. But that's generally not the case.

• In most of Spain, the letters s and z actually have different pronunciations (z being pronounced /θ/, as th in thin), unlike in Latin America.

• Spain is actually the 3rd country with the most native Spanish speakers.

• The Real Academia Española (RAE), the institution regulating the Spanish language, has admitted that there is a perfectly pronounceable Spanish word that is literally impossible to spell. The word is pronounced ['sal.le] and is an imperative form of the verb salir ("to exit") + the weak 3rd person singular accusative pronoun le. The problem is that there is no way in Spanish to spell two successive l, as ll is pronounced [ʎ].

• There were 3 civil wars and no less than 12 succesful coups in Spain between 1800 and 1876.

• General Valeriano Weyler, tasked with the brutal suppression of Cuba's revolt in the late 19th century (which eventually ended in Cuba's secession), coined the term (re)concentration camp.

• Colonists in America named many cities in the continent after Spanish ones, but some have come to overshadow the cities they were named after. An example is Guadalajara, a city in Mexico of 1.5 million people. The "original" Guadalajara is a Spanish city of only 80000 people.

• Spain has had next to no Jewish community after it was expelled in 1492. This explains why Ladino (also known as Judaeo-Spanish), the closest existant language to Spanish, is spoken all around Mediterranean Europe except for Spain itself.

• Spain's geographically lowest point is the sea.

• Spain's antipode is roughly the area in and around New Zealand.

• So many monuments have been destroyed in Spain, there's actually an entire Wikipedia article about it.

• Spain's youngest mayor was 18 years old at the time of election.

• The Spanish TV channel Antena 3 was once infamous for broadcasting The Simpsons at all times.

• It is technically illegal to name your child Judas, Lenin or Stalin in Spain.

• It is also illegal to drive while wearing sandals or flip-flops.

• Spain hoards 25% of all 500€ bills, an obviously disproportionate amount compared to the size of the Spanish economy. This is attributed to widespread tax evasion.

• 11th of September is actually Catalonia's national day.

• Catalonia is divided in 8 vegueries, an administrative division that is used for absolutely nothing.

• Barcelona's most famous landmark, the Sagrada Familia, is actually unfinished to this day.

• In Catalonia, prostitutes must wear reflective vests by law to prevent road accidents.