First the butcher shop closed in Urueña.

Then in December the baker retired.

Now only an occasional hawker drives his delivery truck through the narrow streets of the Castilian town, honking its horn.

Only a good 100 residents are left behind the thick city walls.

But Urueña is not one of the thousands of dying villages in the heart of Spain.

A small cultural town rises on the prominent hill.

There may no longer be freshly baked bread or Ibérico ham, but there are more books.

Eleven shops offer them, that's more than all the bars and restaurants in town put together.

Which means something in Spain.

Hans Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb based in Madrid.

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The range of bookshops is sophisticated, ranging from cinematic rarities and local history to comics, architecture and pop art.

"The books have brought new life and made our place more attractive," says Mayor Francisco Rodríguez.

Last year, when Spain reopened after the pandemic, 19,000 visitors were counted in the "Villa del Libro".

Before Corona, there were many more people who turned off the nearby highway that leads north from Madrid to the picturesque town.

A cinema is still missing for his happiness

The books saved him from slowly bleeding dry like much of “empty Spain”.

This exodus has been going on for decades, with many young people in particular leaving.

In Urueña, most citizens are over 65 years old.

A regular bus runs only three times a week to the provincial capital of Valladolid, which is 50 kilometers away.

But none of this deterred the booksellers, some of whom came from far away to start anew in Urueña.

Inés Toharia and Isaac García previously lived in New York, where the filmmaker worked for the United Nations.

They returned to Spain to pursue their dream.

A decade ago, her store “El Grifilm” opened.

They have collected books about films and cinema on two floors.

“Castilian winters can be tough, so it gets a bit lonely here.

But as soon as it gets warmer, people come back.

We don't want to leave here anymore," says Isaac García.

At most one cinema is still missing for his happiness.

Around ten euros rent

The couple had not let go of the idea of ​​their own bookshop since they lived near Hay-on-Wye in Wales for some time.

The "Booktown" is the model for Urueña, which is more of a book village in comparison.

The first bookstores opened in the remote Welsh town in the 1960s; today there are more than two dozen.

There is also a literature festival.

The example found imitators in Scotland, France and Italy.

In Spain there is only Urueña so far.

In 2007, the Castile-Leon regional government set up the first shops in the shadow of the city walls.

“The rent is symbolic.

To do this, they have to be open for at least four days a week, including weekends,” says Luis Enrique Valdés, the director of the “Villa del Libro”.

The rent is around ten euros.

In addition, the regional government does a lot for the small town, which has half a dozen museums.