You’ve probably spotted a few castles on hilltops over villages as you’ve driven through Spain, and that’s because they’re everywhere. 

Each of Spain’s 50 provinces has at least a dozen or two, if not hundreds, as in the case of Barcelona, Cuenca, Cádiz, Soria, Zaragoza or Guadalajara.

Interesante artículo con mapa interactivo de los castillos de #España para identificar su origen y localización: prehistoria, romanos, medieval, moderno, y también murallas, fortalezas…

Seguro que le gusta a @Paco_Almanzor #historia #geografía

📷⤵️https://t.co/ao01ZOg2bE pic.twitter.com/elVHg50tZC

— Germán S.G. (@ingeododo) November 25, 2021

The preservation of these vestiges of Medieval (and more often than not Moorish) Spain were actually a priority for Spain’s fascist dictator Francisco Franco, who in 1949 rolled out legislation which banned any of Spain’s castillos (castles) from being demolished.

However, Spain’s castles are “in general” in a “calamitous, catastrophic” state, Miguel Sobrino , author of the study “Castillos y murallas”, told Spain’s leading daily El País.

From the Napoleonic Wars to poor restoration jobs between the 1960s and 80s, many are the reasons that have meant that only a handful of these castles are in a presentable state. 

El castillo de Cea (León) fue muy importante durante las luchas entre Alfonso VIII de Castilla y Alfonso IX de León. Con la unión de los reinos perdió importancia y hoy la lucha es para que sus ruinas se consoliden y sigan en pie. pic.twitter.com/NQ9wrFDjka

— Los viajes de Tomasa (@ViajesDeTomasa) April 18, 2024

“Castles are like beetles, they die and dry up on the inside, but they seem to be alive because the exterior does not change,” Sobrino added metaphorically about the fact that many of these fortresses still look impressive from the outside and from afar.

Others blame the lack of funding from public coffers, and the fact that there is no law in place encouraging private investors to act as patrons for Spain’s heritage. When there is money available, the mayors of the underpopulated villages where these castles are usually located don’t always know how to organise the restoration properly.

Spain’s crumbling castles are another example of how “Empty Spain” is often overlooked and underfunded, despite being some of the most vivid examples of the country’s rich history.

Something that has been getting the attention it deserves (but for all the wrong reasons) is an English-language tourism campaign by the government of the green north-western region of Galicia.

“It’s a match, Galicia” reads the poster, with an icon of a flame and, in the background, a photo of the lush forests of Galicia’s Ribeira Sacra.

It was meant to draw a parallel between Tinder’s “It’s a match” slogan when the dating app puts two people together, and the fact that Galicia is ‘a perfect match’ for tourists.

Por moito que volo diga a Consellaría de Cultura, non levedes mistos ao monte… pic.twitter.com/WXG9kEyqxg

— Duarte Romero Varela (@Xan_Guindan) July 25, 2024

However, social media users were quick to pick up that the wording and imagery appeared to be inciting people to set Galician forests on fire.

“As much as the Culture Council tells you to, don’t take matches to the mountains,” one X user jokingly wrote in response.

Even though it’s a harmless lost-in-translation gaffe, forest fires are no laughing matter in Galicia, nor anywhere else in Spain. 

Galicia had its worst forest fires ever in 2022 and the following year was a particularly terrible one for incendios (wildfires) in Spain, with more than 85,000 hectares scorched.

2024 hasn’t been as bad a year for forest fires yet (46 percent less than in 2023), but we are now in the midst of the heatwave season in Spain, when these destructive blazes tend to rage hardest and for longer.