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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Basketball
Basketball is the second most popular spectator
sport in Spain.Baloncesto, as they call it, has a national
league comprising 18 teams.The top eight finishing
teams compete for the ACB title in playoffs at the
season’s end. Real Madrid and Barcelona, affiliated
with the football teams of the same names, are the
most successful clubs. Somewhat unsportingly they’ve
won 25 out of the 27 league championships played
out thus far.The national team won the FIBA World
Championship for the first time in 2006.
Cycling
There’s a great tradition of cycling among Spaniards –
as both participators and as spectators – thanks largely
to the Vuelta a España, one of the three ‘grand tours’
of Europe, which originated in 1935 and has been held
annually since 1950. Basque rider Miguel Indurain is the
outstanding success story of Spanish cycling, having
won theTour de France consecutively from 1991 to
1995.
Bullfighting
Few, if any, sports divide opinion quite like bullfighting.
First off, is it even a sport? Aficionados are more likely to
tell you it’s an art form; flick through a Spanish
newspaper and you’ll find the bullfighting reported in
the culture section, not amongst the sport. And then,
of course, there’s the debate over cruelty, ongoing
both within Spain and beyond its borders.There’s little
agreement on where bullfighting came from either.
Did the Romans introduce it to Spain as a gladiatorial
warm up act? Was it the Moors who turned the killing of
The English connection
Although generally known
by its anglicised name,
fútbol, the literal Spanish
word for the beautiful
game is actually
balompié. The English
origins of the game in
Spain are easily traced:
the oldest club in Spain,
Real Club Recreativo de
Huelva, was formed in
1889 by Dr Alexander
McKay and British
workers from the nearby
Rió Tinto Company. When,
in March 1890, they lost
the first official game of
football in Spain to a
team from Seville, 20 of
the 22 players were
English. Athletic Bilbao
was another club formed
largely by the English,
instituted by migrant ship
and steelyard workers
in the Basque region.
Ironically, today the club
upholds itscanterapolicy,
in which only players of
Basque origin may turn
out for the team.
