To many of us, if we were asked which Spanish city or town with the most bookstores is, we would quickly think of Madrid or Barcelona. If the question were added at the end, for each inhabitant, the answer would change a lot. And it is that to obtain the answer we should go to the town of Urueña, located in the province of Valladolid and which can boast of being the Spanish city or town with the most bookstores per inhabitant.
With only 180 residents, it can boast of having 9 bookstores, or what is the same as a bookstore for every 20 inhabitants, undoubtedly a real luxury for all who live in this Valladolid town and a record that is difficult to beat.
Many of you will wonder how so many bookstores can survive in a town with so few inhabitants, but everything has its explanation that you will surely understand, but that will also surprise. Let's start with it.
In 2007, Urueña became a Villa del Libro through the European Book Twon project.. The number of bookstores quickly began to grow, which more than half a million people visit each year in search of different books.
This project has left other Villas in the book throughout Europe, and for example we can find one in; Montereggio (Italy), Redu (Belgium) or Bredevort (Holland). Of course, there is also a large number of bookstores in it.
"In Spain, it was decided to locate in Urueña because the Joaquín Díaz Foundation is located there, and the visitors to the city already had a certain cultural profile"
Also All the libraries in Urueña share the characteristic that in them you can find old and strange books, which can hardly be bought in other places, which makes readers from anywhere travel to this town in Castilla y León, not only from Spain, but from Europe.
In these times when bookstores are being forced to close their doors, given the increasing advance of digital reading and giants such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble, to mention two specific examples, It is very gratifying to know cases like that of Urueña in which bookstores are the main protagonists, and that give life to the town and also a way of making a living for the inhabitants of the town.
I do not know when I will have vacations, but I think that as soon as I have them, one of my places where I will go to spend a few days will be Urueña, to be able to know this peculiar town that can boast of being the one with the largest number of bookstores per inhabitant in all of Spain .
Have you ever visited Urueña and its already famous bookstores?.
Urueña ... I had never heard of that town. Curious story. Interesting article Villamandos.
Nice town of Valladolid very close I recommend it.
I have been in 2013 only one afternoon because I was passing through. The weather was not there so that I could enjoy that town a lot but I loved its stone streets, its wall, its situation. The town was empty, it was late summer and it was raining and it's in the middle of nowhere, even so, I went into one of their little bookstores full of old books, and I tried to visit their church but it was closed at the time. I'm sure I'll be back as soon as I can and make a slow and meticulous visit….
It would be nice to be there and make myself known, as one of the greatest dreams in my life as a writer; Here in Colombia there is not much on the subject of books, and they have been writing and traveling the world through reading for more than fifteen years.