Come discover the nights of Andalusia, the corridas of Barcelona, the festivals of Seville and the famous Catalan cuisine

Every region is an entity that you'll want to explore

Geography
Area: 504,782 square kilometers

A country bordered to the south by the Mediterranean, located between Portugal and France, and including enclaves such as Llivia in France, Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa, the Canary Islands and the Rock of Gibraltar

Status
Monarchy

Government
Pluralist democracy; parliamentary system; includes a king (Juan Carlos), a Prime Minister, the Cortes, which is made up of 350 members, and a 208-member Senate.

Capital: Madrid

Currency: Euro (formerly the peseta)

Languages spoken
Spanish, Catalan, Basque

Agriculture
world's second largest orange producer (from Seville), and the world's largest olive oil producer

Tourist Information

February is a good month to explore Spain. The mardi gras carnivals, particularly in the Canary Islands and in Cadix, are hugely popular. Harlequin masks and costumes, devils and giants are all part of the year's first festival. The carnivals in Lanz (Navarre) with their mythical characters (Ziripot and Zaldico) carry on age-old traditions. In Cadix the carnival takes on a clownish atmosphere with its "charangas" (popular orchestras). In March, make way for fire and gunpowder! Valencia celebrates its traditional "fallas" by burning "ninots," cardboard statues that can be several metres tall.