World Travel 4 Indians

The Spanish culture has its roots in Iberian and Latin influences. In addition to the history of the nation, its Mediterranean climate and geography have played strong roles in shaping its culture. A deep sense of regional identity exists in many regions of Spain and these nationalities have contributed heavily to many aspects of mainstream Spanish culture. Several communities of Andalusia, Asturias, Navarre and Valencia have their own version of nationalism but generally they have no aspirations to independent statehood.

While nearly everyone in Spain can speak Spanish, other languages figure prominently in many regions such as Basque in the Basque Country and Navarre, Catalan in Catalonia and Galician in Galicia. . Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective regions and all are major enough, so that there are numerous daily newspapers in these languages.

Spain's natural surroundings have helped shape the culture of the nation. The success of the Basques in maintaining a separate culture over a period of millennia has doubtless been aided by the mountainous geography of their region. Several parts of Spain have strong maritime traditions, including inland ports on rivers.

Because many of its historical buildings have remained intact till this day, several architectural structures in Spain, and even portions of cities, have been designated as World Heritage Sites. As Spain was a part of the Roman Empire, Roman architectural remnants could be found all over.

Spain is also famous for its sports, mainly because of football, for which it is highly reputed, and for the traditional bullfighting. Although bullfighting is becoming less famous day by day, yet it is still not out of its past glory.