Spain
Widely known for Flamenco music and dance, bullfights, fantastic beaches and lots of sunshine, Spain has much more to offer than that. It is-and has been for thousands of years-one of the cultural centres of Europe.
Spain has an extraordinary artistic heritage. The dominant figures of the golden age were the Toledo-based artists El Greco and Diego Velasquez. Francisco Goya emerged in the 18th century as Spain's most prolific painter and he produced some wonderfully unflattering portraits of royalty. The art world in the early 20th century was influenced by a remarkable group of Spanish artists: Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí.
Spain's architecture ranges from prehistoric monuments in Minorca in the Balearic Islands, through to the Roman ruins of Mérida and Tarragona, the decorative Lonja in Seville, Mudéjar buildings, Gothic cathedrals, castles, fantastic modernist monuments and Gaudí's intricate fabulist sculptures.
