Following the release of The Spain Quiz, a new cultural quiz book about all things Spain, author Ruta Czina shares the 10 fun facts that you should know about Spain:
Ruta Czina
I have been to Spain many times: with tourist groups and with my family as well. I have read many tourist books and experienced the Spanish culture firsthand, talking to local people, tasting their traditional foods, visiting the places of great attraction, and allowing myself to absorb the colors, smells and views of Spain's stunning nature. I wanted to know more and so I wrote a book – a fun book for anyone who is curious and ready to dive deeper into Spanish culture: its language, history, celebrations and festivals, explorations and inventions, fashion, architecture, literature, music and dance, cinema, sports, cuisine and much more.
Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the world by number of native speakers after the Mandarin language, and it's an official language in 21 countries.
Spain is the closest European country to Africa, with separation of 13 kilometres at the closest point, Morocco.
The national day of Spain is celebrated on October 12th, and it commemorates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first arrival in the Americas.
There are only two countries in Europe which are more mountanous than Spain, and they are Switzerland and Austria. The average altitude of Spain is 660 metres – two times the European average.
In July 2005, Spain became the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, following the Netherlands and Belgium.
Custo Dalmau is a Spanish designer whose clothes were worn in television series "Friends", and "Sex and the City", also by Julia Roberts in "Notting Hill" and "Runaway Bride".
The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso had 23 words in his full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. This painter's works are among the most expensive pieces of art in the world.
Miguel de Cervantes, the writer of one of the masterpieces of the world literature “Don Quixote”, died on the same day as William Shakespeare on the 23rd of April, 1616. To honor this, UNESCO established 23rd of April as the International Day of the Book.
Spain has won the first place in Eurovision song contest twice: in 1968 and 1969. In 1969, there were four countries who took the first place in this contest: Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France.
The Spanish composer Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga was nicknamed "the Spanish Mozart", as he was also a child genius, a master composer, was born on the same day as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, on January 27th, just 50 years apart, shared the same first and second baptismal names and died young.
The Spain Quiz is a fun quiz book for all of the family. It can be purchased from www.bookguild.co.uk, Amazon and all good bookshops.
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