Elena Gocmen Rueda
THOSE looking for a project may be interested in an entire abandoned village for sale in Burgos in central northern Spain.
It includes a Romanesque church and the potential to rebuild some fifty stone houses and could be yours for €350,000 – less than the price of a two bedroom flat in downtown Madrid.
The village of Barcena de Bureba lies around 100km south of the city of Burgos and just 25km east of Aranda del Duero.
But like many rural villages across Spain’s vast interior, its inhabitants drifted away to the cities and it has been largely abandoned since the 1980s.
The urban nucleus is made up of some 50 houses of various sizes, with many of them described as being structurally in relatively good condition although in need of serious renovation.
Most of the buildings are built with limestone walls, and are connected to electricity and water supplies, according to Spanish portal Idealista where the property is listed.
The gem of the village is a small Romanesque-style church.
The sale of the entire village is likely to generate excitement among those looking to relocate from the city to ‘empty Spain’.
Recent purchases of entire villages in Spain – many in Teruel, Soria and Galicia – have been bought up by groups of friends as a retirement project or as ‘co-working’ projects.
The issue of depopulation in rural areas has become a political one with efforts now being made to entice people back to the countryside to breathe new life into dying villages.
Efforts include a pledge by Spain’s government to bring high-speed internet to far-flung rural areas to encourage remote workers or digital nomads to relocate.
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