These 19 Nightmarish Places Will Keep You Awake At Night... They Sent Chills Down My Spine.

  

As you go about your daily life, it's easy to forget all of the weird and wonderful things that are tucked away around the world. A Redditor cobbled together 19 of the strangest places on earth, reminding us all of the creepy things that could be hidden in our very towns. Dark forests, abandoned cities, strange museums and other oddities are everywhere. You just need to know how to find them.

1.) Hoia Baciu Forest (Romania): This forest is known as the “Bermuda Triangle” of Romania. Multiple people have gone missing in it, people have sighted UFOs, there has been unexplained electrical phenomena and more.

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2.) The Catacombs (Paris): The Parisian catacombs are a giant ossuary and cemetary that are located beneath that city’s streets. There are approximately 6 million bodies put to rest in the catacombs. There is a city of the dead waiting to be explored beneath the city of lights.

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3.) The Mütter Museum (Pennsylvania): The Mütter Museum is an institution dedicated to medical anomalies. It houses organs, bones, fetuses and statues that’ll leave you with chills. Its medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment are world-famous.

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4.) Varosha (Cyprus): Varosha is a completely uninhabited resort city on Cyprus’ coast. After the Turkish invasion, Varosha was quickly evacuated. Today, Varosha stands frozen displaying exactly how life was in 1974. From a distance it looks like a bustling resort town, but it is completely dead.

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5.) Oradour-sur-Glane (France): This is a small French village that was decimated by the Nazis in WWII. The entire city was burned and almost every inhabitant was executed. The remnants of the village still stand today.

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6.) The Door to Hell (Turkmenistan): This was once a gas field, but the Soviets set it on fire. Now, it has been burning for over 40 years. It seems that the dangerous pit of fire will never stop burning.

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7.) Maunsell Sea Forts (North Sea, England): These were designed to protect England from a potential Nazi invasion during WWII. Today, they stand empty, ghosts guarding the coast (except for the occasional sea bird or vandals).

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8.) Leap Castle (Ireland): The Leap Castle is reportedly one of the most haunted castles in the world. Its rumored that the hallways are patrolled by “the Elemental,” an unseen force. The castle is allegedly haunted because it hosted historic slaughters and was even built on top of a torture pit.

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9.) San Zhi Resort (Taiwan): This resort was built to be a tranquil place, but because of the strange amount of deaths during the construction, it was abandoned. Now, the “pod” resort stands empty and supposedly haunted.

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10.) Wonderland (China): Wonderland was supposed to be China’s version of Disneyland, but much bigger. There were construction problems with the project, leading it to be abandoned. The remains of the theme park are still in the middle of an empty field, open to adventurers.

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11.) Jacob’s Well (Texas): This natural spring is over 100 feet deep. Many locals jump into the well for recreation, even though there are sharp rocks jutting out from all sides. Scuba divers explore the depths of this well, but with caution. Over the years, novice divers have perished in the well.

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12.) Kryziu Kalnas “Hill Of Crosses” (Lithuania): Kryziu Kalnas was originally a ceremonial site where Lithuanians would mourn the dead lost at war. The Soviet Union bulldozed the area twice, but locals rebuilt it to be even bigger. Today, over 100,000 crosses stand on the hill.

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13.) Kabayan Mummy Caves (Philippines): The Kabayan Mummy Burial Caves are manmade caves full of preserved mummies, isolated from most of the world. These mummies are some of the best preserved in the world.

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14.) Muynak (Uzbekistan): Muynak was once a busy port city on the Aral Sea. The Soviet Union drained the Aral Sea for irrigation purposes, destroying Muynak and leaving the remants of a busy port sit in a desert wasteland.

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15.) Centralia (Pennsylvania): This was one a busy mining town, until the coal veins under the city caught fire. This dangerous fire has been burning since 1962. The town was bandoned, except for approximately 10 people who still live there. The creepy town was the visual inspiration for the horror movie Silent Hill.

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16.) Island of the Dolls (Mexico): This place is an uninhabited island in Xochimilco, Mexico. According to legend, a girl died in the canals surrounding the island, after which dolls began to wash ashore constantly. The island’s only inhabitant and caretaker then began to hang the dolls that would wash ashore in memory of the little girl.

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17.) Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subway (Ohio): There were plans to build a subway system in Cincinnati in the early 1900s. The city ran out of funding, but the tunnels that were constructed are still open beneath the city, a maze that is left to be explored.

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18.) Jatinga (India): Jatinga is a relatively normal town, but it’s plagued by massive bird “suicides” that happen every September - October. The en masse bird deaths occur at the end of the monsoon months, when on dark, foggy nights the bird populations are attracted to the lights of villages and are then killed by the villagers. In modern times, conservation groups have made an effort to decrease the amount of bird deaths during this season.

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19.) Akodessewa Fetish Market (Togo): Over half of the population of Togo practices indigenous beliefs, requiring religious paraphernalia you would not find in any normal market. Shrunken heads, skulls, flesh and more can be found in a fetish market like this.

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Some of the strangest places on earth aren't legitimately haunted, instead they are haunted by the memories of the horrors that were once committed there. The absence of life and positivity in a place that is just an archaic link to the past can be more chilling than any ghost story.
Source: Reddit Share these strange places with others... spread the chills that go down your spine.

China

China

02DEC2014

Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For much of the country’s dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations, which have their origins in the Han Dynasty. The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy, poetry and painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Chinese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective.Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today.

The first leaders of the People’s Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state. Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party’s rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as “regressive and harmful” or “vestiges of feudalism”. Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera, were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time. Access to foreign media remains heavily restricted; only 34 foreign films a year are allowed to be shown in Chinese cinemas.

Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival, and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide. China is now the third-most-visited country in the world, with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010. It also experiences an enormous volume of domestic tourism; an estimated 740 million Chinese holidaymakers travelled within the country in October 2012 alone.Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety. The emperors of traditional China were known to have many dining chambers in their palaces, with each chamber divided into several departments, each responsible for a specific type of dish.China’s staple food is rice in the south, wheat based breads and noodles in the north. Although the diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions, pork is now the most popular meat, accounting for about three-fourths of the country’s total meat consumption.Southern cuisine, due to the area’s proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of fish and vegetables; it differs in many respects from the wheat-based diets across dry northern China. Numerous offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine and American Chinese food, have emerged in the nations that play host to the Chinese diaspora.

China has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. There is evidence that archery (Shèjiàn) was practised during the Western Zhou Dynasty. Swordplay (Jiànshù) and a form of association football (Cùjū) date back to China’s early dynasties as well.Today, some of the most popular sports in the country include martial arts, basketball, football, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. Board games such as go (known as weiqi in China), xiangqi, and more recently chess, are also played at a professional level.

Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture, with morning exercises such as qigong and t’ai chi ch’uan widel

y practised, and commercial gyms and fitness clubs gaining popularity in the country. Young people in China are also enjoy soccer and basketball, especially in urban centres with limited space and grass areas. The American National Basketball Association has a huge following among the Chinese youth, with ethnic or native Chinese players such as Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin held in high esteem. In addition, China is home to a huge number of cyclists, with an estimated 470 million bicycles as of 2012. Many more traditional sports, such as dragon boat racing, Mongolian-style wrestling and horse racing are also popular.China has participated in the Olympic Games since 1932, although it has only participated as the PRC since 1952. China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where its athletes received 51 gold medals – the highest number of gold medals of any participating nation that year. China also won the most medals of any nation at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, with 231 overall, including 95 gold medals. In 2011, Shenzhen in Guandgong, China hosted the 2011 Summer Universiade. China hosted the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin and the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing.

Indonesia

Indonesia

10DEC2014

Indonesia has about 300 ethnic groups, each with cultural identities developed over centuries, and influenced by Indian, Arabic, Chinese, and European sources. Traditional Javanese and Balinese dances, for example, contain aspects of Hindu culture and mythology, as do wayang kulit (shadow puppet) performances. Textiles such as batik, ikat, ulos and songket are created across Indonesia in styles that vary by region. The most dominant influences on Indonesian architecture have traditionally been Indian; however, Chinese, Arab, and European architectural influences have been significant.

Sports in Indonesia are generally male-orientated and spectator sports are often associated with illegal gambling. The most popular sports are badminton and football. Indonesian players have won the Thomas Cup (the world team championship of men’s badminton) thirteen of the twenty-six times that it has been held since 1949, as well as numerous Olympic medals since the sport gained full Olympic status in 1992. Its women have won the Uber Cup, the female equivalent of the Thomas Cup, twice, in 1994 and 1996. Liga Indonesia is the country’s premier football club league. Traditional sports include sepak takraw, and bull racing in Madura. In areas with a history of tribal warfare, mock fighting contests are held, such as caci in Flores and pasola in Sumba. Pencak Silat is an Indonesian martial art.

Indonesian cuisine varies by region and is based on Chinese, European, Middle Eastern, and Indian precedents. Rice is the main staple food and is served with side dishes of meat and vegetables. Spices (notably chili), coconut milk, fish and chicken are fundamental ingredients. Indonesian traditional music includes gamelan and keroncong. The Indonesian film industry’s popularity peaked in the 1980s and dominated cinemas in Indonesia, although it declined significantly in the early 1990s. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Indonesian films released each year has steadily increased.

The oldest evidence of writing in Indonesia is a series of Sanskrit inscriptions dated to the 5th century. Important figures in modern Indonesian literature include: Dutch author Multatuli, who criticized treatment of the Indonesians under Dutch colonial rule; Sumatrans Muhammad Yamin and Hamka, who were influential pre-independence nationalist writers and politicians; and proletarian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia’s most famous novelist. Many of Indonesia’s peoples have strongly rooted oral traditions, which help to define and preserve their cultural identities.

Media freedom in Indonesia increased considerably after the end of President Suharto’s rule, during which the now-defunct Ministry of Information monitored and controlled domestic media, and restricted foreign media. The TV market includes ten national commercial networks, and provincial networks that compete with public TVRI. Private radio stations carry their own news bulletins and foreign broadcasters supply programs. At a reported 25 million users in 2008, Internet usage was estimated at 12.5% in September 2009. More than 30 milli.

More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. Most belong to the Austronesian language family, with a few Papuan languages also spoken. The official language is Indonesian (locally known as Bahasa Indonesia), a variant of Malay,which was used in the archipelago, — borrowing heavily from local languages of Indonesia such as Javanese, Sundanese, Minangkabau, etc. The Indonesian language is primarily used in commerce, administration, education and the media, but most Indonesians speak other languages, such as Javanese, as their first language.

Indonesian language is based on the prestige dialect of Malay, that of the Johor-Riau Sultanate, which for centuries had been the lingua franca of the archipelago, standards of which are the official languages in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. Indonesian is universally taught in schools, consequently it is spoken by nearly every Indonesian. It is the language of business, politics, national media, education, and academia. It was promoted by Indonesian nationalists in the 1920s, and declared the official language under the name Bahasa Indonesia on the proclamation of independence in 1945. Most Indonesians speak at least one of the several hundred local languages and dialects, often as their first language. Of these, Javanese is the most widely spoken as the language of the largest ethnic group. On the other hand, Papua has over 270 indigenous Papuan and Austronesian languages, in a region of about 2.7 million people.

Czech Republic

Czech Republic

01FEB2015

The Czech Language

95% of the population speak Czech. 3% of the population speak Slovak, which is closely related to Czech. 2% of the population speak Czech but are also mother tongue speakers of German, Hungarian, Romani and Polish.

Czech Society & Culture

 The Family .

The family is the centre of the social structure.

. Obligation to the family is a person’s first priority.

Practicality .

Czechs prize forward thinking, logical, practical, and efficient.

. Careful planning, in both one’s business and personal life, provides a sense of security.

. Rules and regulations allow people to know what is expected and to plan their life accordingly.

Privacy .

Czechs are private people until they get to know you.

. They are formal and reserved.

. Once you develop a personal relationship Czechs open up a bit, but they are never overly emotional.

. Although always polite, they seldom move to a first-name basis with people outside their extended family or very close friends.

.Czechs tend not to acknowledge people whom they do not know as they walk along the street or ride the train.

Czech Etiquette and Customs

Meeting and Greeting .

Initial greetings are formal and reserved.

. Most greetings include a handshake, direct eye contact, and the appropriate greeting for the time of day.

. Wait to be invited before using someone’s first name or an informal greeting, as these are all signs of friendship.

. The offer to move to the informal is generally offered by the woman, the older person, or the person of higher status.

. Moving to the informal without an invitation insults the person and may be viewed as an attempt to humiliate them.

Giving and Accepting Gifts .

If you are invited to dinner, bring a box of good quality chocolates, or flowers to the hostess or a bottle of wine or good brandy to the host.

. In general, you should be cautious about giving flowers, since people over the age of 35 often see flowers as having a romantic connotation.

. If you give flowers, give an odd number, but not 13, which is considered unlucky.

. Do not give calla lilies as they are used at funerals.

. Gifts are usually opened when received.

Dining Etiquette

If you are visiting a Czech’s house:

. Arrive on time.

. Remove your shoes..

. Expect to be treated with great honour and respect.

. Dress modestly and well.

. Do not discuss business. Czechs separate their business and personal lives.

. Table manners are rather formal in Czech Republic.

. Remain standing until invited to sit down. You may be shown to a particular seat.

. Table manners are Continental — the fork is held in the left hand and the knife in the right while eating.

. Do not begin eating until the hostess starts.

. Unless the meal is formal, the napkin remains folded next to the plate. At formal meals, the napkin is unfolded and put on your lap.

. The oldest woman or honoured guest is generally served first.

. Always refuse second helpings the first time they are offered. Wait for the hostess to insist.

. Compliment the meal while you are eating. This allows the hostess to discuss the food and the preparation.

. Indicate you have finished eating by laying your knife and fork parallel across the right side of your plate.

Pakistan

Pakistan

16JAN2015

Pakistan is a sovereign country in South Asia. With a population exceeding 180 million people, it is the sixth most populous country and with an area covering 796,095 km2 (307,374 sq mi), it is the 36th largest country in the world in terms of area. Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan’s narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and also shares a marine border with Oman.

The territory that now constitutes Pakistan was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the Mehrgarh of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including Hindus, Indo-Greeks, Muslims, Turco-Mongols, Afghans and Sikhs. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander of Macedonia, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empireand the British Empire.

As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the subcontinent’s struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of Subcontinent where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic

A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of four provinces and four federal territories. It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similar variation in its geography and wildlife. A regional and middle power, Pakistan has the seventh largest standing armed forces in the world and is also a nuclear power as well as a declared nuclear-weapons state, being the only nation in the Muslim world, and the second in South Asia, to have that status.

It has a semi-industrialised economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector, its economy is the 26th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and 45th largest in terms of nominal GDP and is also characterized among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world.

The United States of America

The United States of America

10JAN2015

The United States of America (USA) commonly referred to as the United States (U.S.). It is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia is the capital of the United States.The United States is the world’s fourth-largest country by total area and third-largest by population. The United States is the world’s fourth-largest country by total area and third-largest by population.

Climate:
The climate of the United States varies due to large differences in latitude, and a wide range of geographic features, including mountains and deserts.

Language:
English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level.

Religion:
Christianity is by far the most common religion practiced in the U.S., but other religions are followed, too. Protestantism is the largest Christian religion in the United States. About 26 percent of Americans identify as Evangelical Protestants, while 18 percent are Mainline and 7 percent belong to a traditionally Black church. Roman Catholicism in the United States has its origin in the Spanish and French colonization of the Americas, and later grew due to Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Hispanic immigration. Rhode Island is the only state where a majority of the population is Catholic.

Economy:
The United States has a capitalist mixed economy which is fueled by abundant natural resources and high productivity. The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per capita. sixth in GDP per capita at PPP. The U.S. dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency. Agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP, the United States is the world’s top producer of corn and soybeans.

Culture:
The United States is home to many cultures and a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values. Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants.

Food:
Mainstream American cuisine is similar to that in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain with about three-quarters of grain products made of wheat flour and many dishes use indigenous ingredients, such as turkey, venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup which were consumed by Native Americans and early European settlers. These home grown foods are part of a shared national menu on one of America’s most popular holidays; Thanksgiving, when some Americans make traditional foods to celebrate the occasion. Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dog derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed. Americans generally prefer coffee to tea.

Movies:
Hollywood , a northern district of Los Angeles, California, is one of the leaders in motion picture production. The world’s first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, although in the 21st century an increasing number of films are not made there, and film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization.

spain

Spain

21DEC2014

Culturally, Spain is a Western country. Because of the great strength of the Roman heritage in almost every aspect of Spanish life, Spain is often described as a Latin country. Nevertheless, there have been many influences on many aspects of Spanish life, from art and architecture to cuisine and music, from many countries across Europe and from around the Mediterranean, through its long history.

LITERATURE

The earliest recorded examples of vernacular Romance-based literature date from the same time and location, the rich mix of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures in Muslim Spain, in which Maimonides, Averroes, and others worked, the Kharjas (Jarchas).

During the Reconquista, the epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid was written about a real man—his battles, conquests, and daily life.

Bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, with Miguel de Cervantes, in the Plaza de España in Madrid.

Other major plays from the medieval times were Mester de Juglaría, Mester de Clerecía, Coplas por la muerte de su padre or El Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love).

During the Renaissance the major plays are La Celestina and El Lazarillo de Tormes, while many religious literature was created with poets as Luis de León, San Juan de la Cruz, Santa Teresa de Jesús, etc.

The Baroque is the most important period for Spanish culture. We are in the times of the Spanish Empire. The famous Don Quijote de La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes was written in this time. Other writers from the period are: Francisco de Quevedo, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca or Tirso de Molina.

During the Enlightenment we find names such as Leandro Fernández de Moratín, Benito Jerónimo Feijóo, Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos or Leandro Fernández de Moratín.

During the Romanticism, José Zorrilla created one of the most emblematic figures in European literature in Don Juan Tenorio. Other writers from this period are Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, José de Espronceda, Rosalía de Castro or Mariano José de Larra.

In Realism we find names such as Benito Pérez Galdós, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) or Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and Menéndez Pelayo. Realism offered depictions of contemporary life and society ‘as they were’. In the spirit of general “Realism”, Realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of romanticized or stylized presentations.

The group that has become known as the Generation of 1898 was marked by the destruction of Spain’s fleet in Cuba by US gunboats in 1898, which provoked a cultural crisis in Spain. The “Disaster” of 1898 led established writers to seek practical political, economic, and social solutions in essays grouped under the literary heading of Regeneracionismo. For a group of younger writers, among them Miguel de Unamuno, Pío Baroja, and José Martínez Ruiz (Azorín), the Disaster and its cultural repercussions inspired a deeper, more radical literary shift that affected both form and content. These writers, along with Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Antonio Machado, Ramiro de Maeztu, and Ángel Ganivet, came to be known as the ‘Generation of 98.’

Miguel de Unamuno, José Ortega y Gasset and Federico García Lorca

The Generation of 1914 or Novecentismo. The next supposed “generation” of Spanish writers following those of ’98 already calls into question the value of such terminology. By the year 1914—the year of the outbreak of the First World War and of the publication of the first major work of the generation’s leading voice, José Ortega y Gasset—a number of slightly younger writers had established their own place within the Spanish cultural field.

Leading voices include the poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, the academics and essayists Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Gregorio Marañón, Manuel Azaña, Maria Zambrano, Eugeni d’Ors, and Ortega y Gasset, and the novelists Gabriel Miró, Ramón Pérez de Ayala, and Ramón Gómez de la Serna. While still driven by the national and existential questions that obsessed the writers of ´98, they approached these topics with a greater sense of distance and objectivity. Salvador de Madariaga, another prominent intellectual and writer, was one of the founders of the College of Europe and the composer of the constitutive manifest of the Liberal International.

The Generation of 1927, where poets Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Federico García Lorca, Vicente Aleixandre, Dámaso Alonso. All were scholars of their national literary heritage, again evidence of the impact of the calls of regeneracionistas and the Generation of 1898 for Spanish intelligence to turn at least partially inwards.

The two main writers in the second half of the 20th century were the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Camilo José Cela and Miguel Delibes. Spain is one of the countries with the most number of laureates with the Nobel Prize in Literature, and with Latin American laureates they made the Spanish language literature one of the most laureates of all. The Spanish writers are: José Echegaray, Jacinto Benavente, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Vicente Aleixandre and Camilo José Cela. The Portuguese writer José Saramago, also awarded with the prize, lived for many years in Spain and spoke both Portuguese and Spanish. He was also well known by his Iberist ideas.

ART

Artists from Spain have been highly influential in the development of various European artistic movements. Due to historical, geographical and generational diversity, Spanish art has known a great number of influences. The Moorish heritage in Spain, especially in Andalusia, is still evident today and European influences include Italy, Germany and France, especially during the Baroque and Neoclassical periods.

During the Golden Age we find painters such as El Greco, José de Ribera and Francisco Zurbarán. Also inside Baroque period Diego Velázquez created some of the most famous Spanish portraits, like Las Meninas or Las Hilanderas.

Francisco Goya painted during a historical period that includes the Spanish Independence War, the fights between liberals and absolutists, and the raise of state-nations.

Joaquín Sorolla is a well-known impressionist painter and there are many important Spanish painters belonging to the modernism art movement, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Juan Gris and Joan Miró.

CUISINE

Spanish cuisine consists of a great variety of dishes which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country’s deep Mediterranean roots. Spain’s extensive history with many cultural influences has led to a unique cuisine. In particular, three main divisions are easily identified:

Mediterranean Spain – all such coastal regions, from Catalonia to Andalusia: heavy use of seafood, such as pescaíto frito; several cold soups like gazpacho; and many rice-based dishes like paella from Valencia[181] and arròs negre (arroz negro) from Catalonia.

Inner Spain – Castile – hot, thick soups such as the bread and garlic-based Castilian soup, along with substantious stews such as cocido madrileño. Food is traditionally conserved by salting, like Spanish ham, or immersed in olive oil, like Manchego cheese.

Atlantic Spain – the whole Northern coast, including Asturian, Basque, Cantabrian and Galician cuisine: vegetable and fish-based stews like caldo galego and marmitako. Also, the lightly cured lacón ham. The best known cuisine of the northern countries often rely on ocean seafood, like the Basque-style cod, albacore or anchovy or the Galician octopus-based polbo á feira and shellfish dishes.

                                                                                                               

                                                                        

MUSIC AND DANCE

Spanish music is often considered abroad to be synonymous with flamenco, a West Andalusian musical genre, which, contrary to popular belief, is not widespread outside that region. Various regional styles of folk music abound in Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Castile, the Basque Country, Galicia and Asturias. Pop, rock, hip hop and heavy metal are also popular.

In the field of classical music, Spain has produced a number of noted composers such as Isaac Albéniz, Manuel

de Falla and Enrique Granados and singers and performers such as Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Montserrat Caballé, Alicia de Larrocha, Alfredo Kraus, Pablo Casals, Ricardo Viñes, José Iturbi, Pablo de Sarasate, Jordi Savall and Teresa Berganza. In Spain there are over forty professional orchestras, including the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Orquesta Nacional de España and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. Major opera houses include the Teatro Real,the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Arriaga and the El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.

Thousands of music fans also travel to Spain each year for internationally recognized summer music festivals Sónar which often features the top up and coming pop and techno acts, and Benicàssim which tends to feature alternative rock and dance acts.  Both festivals mark Spain as an international music presence and reflect the tastes of young people in the country.

The most popular traditional musical instrument, the guitar, originated in Spain.[180] Typical of the north are the traditional bag pipers or gaiteros, mainly in Asturias and Galicia.

SPORT

While varieties of football had been played in Spain as far back as Roman times, sport in Spain has been dominated by English style association football since the early 20th century. Real Madrid C.F. and FC Barcelona are two of the most successful football clubs in the world. The country’s national football team won the UEFA European Football Championship in 1964, 2008 and 2012 and the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and is the first team to ever win three back-to-back international tournaments.

Basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, futsal, motorcycling and, lately, Formula One are also important due to the presence of Spanish champions in all these disciplines. Today, Spain is a major world sports powerhouse, especially since the 1992 Summer Olympics that were hosted in Barcelona, which stimulated a great deal of interest in sports in the country. The tourism industry has led to an improvement in sports infrastructure, especially for water sports, golf and skiing.

Rafael Nadal is the leading Spanish tennis player and has won several Grand Slam titles including the Wimbledon 2010 men’s singles. In north Spain, the game of pelota is very popular. Alberto Contador is the leading Spanish cyclist and has won several Grand Tour titles including two Tour de France titles.