The Salto de Castro village has 44 homes, a school, church, hotel and even barracks.
Spain has found a solution for populating a village that was abandoned over 30 years ago: put it on sale.
According to BBC, The Salto de Castro village in north-western Spain has been put up for sale for €260,000, which equals to roughly Rs 2.1 crore. The village has 44 homes, a hotel, a church, a school, a municipal swimming pool, and a barracks building that once housed the civil guard.
Located on the Spain-Portugal border and three hours away from Madrid by road, the village was abandoned over three decades ago. A listing of the property on the Idealista website states that the property needs renovation. The owner Romuald Rodriguez has written in the listing, “I am selling because I am an urbanite and cannot take care of the inheritance or donation.”
However, the village, spread over 6,600 sq meters, would need an investment of up to €2m to be in a completely functional condition, according to Idealista.
Iberduero, a power generation firm, was housing employees who were building a nearby reservoir in Salto de Castro since the 1950s. But the area was totally abandoned by the 1980s after the work was completed and employees left.
Spain’s countryside is dotted with hamlets that are being sold after their owners abandoned them. About 53 percent of Spain has a population density of fewer than 12.5 inhabitants per square kilometer — among the worst rates in western Europe, making repopulation a political issue, according to Bloomberg.
Source: Indian Express
