Teruel: road trip through Spain's empty corner

As Spanish politics have become heated up in recent times, the sparsely populated and eminently rural province of Teruel, has become the center of attention.

A small local provincial party called “Teruel Existe!” (which means “Teruel Exists!”) obtained a parliamentary seat. The tight vote that followed to elect the next prime minister ensured that this platform, that focuses on problems such as depopulation and infrastructure deficits in the province, became an unlikely kingmaker.

The fact is that, despite all this sudden spike of awareness, Teruel remains more or less “terra incognita”, not only for the millions of foreign tourists that visit Spain every year, but for many Spaniards as well.

Although it is not far from the balmy Mediterranean coast, its location in an elevated inland plateau and the local orography are responsible for a rather unforgiving climate (the particularly cold winter of 1937, while one of the largest battles of the Spanish Civil War was raging in the era, produced some conditions not unlike those of that soldiers on WW2’s Eastern Front would experience a few years later!)

Add to this the fact that it is removed from the main communication axis and Teruel province, like many other areas of Spain’s interior, has suffered from progressive depopulation: empty villages dotting large swathes of its lands.

But it is precisely this climate environment and availability of space that has brought here a rather unique facility, a storage and industrial airport of which few exist in the World.

And it is precisely the need to conduct some in-field research for this article about Teruel’s airport, that appeared on CNN some time ago that gave me the chance to complete a short, one-day road trip , through Spain’s second least populous province.

On the road (I): Barcelona to Alcañiz

As soon as you leave the coastal region and drive inland into the highlands of Lower Aragon, one thing becomes apparent, the immensity of the landscape and how sparsely populated this area is.

This is mostly dry land with a rather extensive sort of agriculture with olive and almonds trees dominating the landscape as far as the eye can see. We were lucky enough to travel at a time when we could enjoy the view of almond trees in full bloom.

Alcañíz is the capital of the Lower Aragon county and a town with a remarkable historical centre.

We did not have time to visit the fortress, which dominates the surrounding landscape, but did stop for a short walk in town.

Alcañiz was a rather important town in the Middle Ages, when the city sustained a prolonged dispute to assert its city rights in opposition to the military-religious order of Calatrava, that controlled the castle and much of the surrounding region.

Among the most important buildings is the church of Santa María La Mayor, that dates from the 13th C. although it features a rather majestic baroque façade.

But, being big city dwellers, perhaps one of the sights that most caught our eye, was that of the many stork nests, like in this bell tower, but also on other buildings all over town!

On the road (II): Alcañíz to Teruel

This was the longest part of the road trip and it did not disappoint. Something akin to traveling along the legendary roads of the American West, with long stretches of road without seeing a single soul.

Only a tiny village every now and then punctuated the emptiness of the landscape. It is amazing to thing there is such a landscape less than two hours from the buzz of the coast!

There were signs, though, that it was not always like this. We could see quite a few derelict farmhouses and even entire hamlets where clearly no one had been living for quite some time. Also some out of service railways stations that use to serve a line that is obviously long gone.

We got to experience as well how the weather can vary tremendously, from the balmy temperatures on the sunny side of the valleys to frigid temperatures as soon as we started to drive uphill. We even encountered some snow!

Downtown Teruel

If the province of Teruel is next to bottom in Spain’s population ranking, its capital claims the honour of being the smallest of all provincial capitals, with a population barely above 35,000.

In the Middle Ages, during the andalusí period, an independent islamic kingdom sprung in this area, centered on nearby Albarracín (a town that still boasts a rather impressive defensive wall and historical center, but which we did not have time to visit in this rather short day trip).

The town of Teruel itself changed hands several times in the medieval period, remaining finally in Aragonese hands.

The long period under Islamic rule has left its mark, though, in the characteristic “múdejar” style (that is common throughout Aragon, in fact the ensemble of Múdejar Art in Aragon has UNESCO World Heritage Site status). It is easily recognizable because of its rich ornamental style and earthy tones (often using bricks for construction).

One of the best example of Múdejar architecture in Teruel, the 14th C. El Salvador tower

In fact, Teruel boasts one of the few cathedrals anywhere in the world built entirely in Múdejar style.

The city boasts also its very own version of the “Romeo and Juliet” story, known as “The Lovers of Teruel”, that are buried side by side in a magnificent marble mausoleum (that despite the appearance were sculpted in the 20th C., although the story of the two lovers is, indeed, much older).

As you might imagine, the center is really small, so pretty much all sights are clustered around the central square known as “El Torito” (not the official name!), a market square that takes its name of a little sculpture of a bull that lies on top of a column.

On the gastronomic side, Teruel Ham is the local highlight.

Again the dry, cold climate is responsible for the curation of the meat. Teruel Ham has its own protected designation of origin, although, generally speaking, is does not enjoy as much recognition as Ibérico hams from South-west Spain (the price differential shows as well).

We arrived when it was already quite late in the afternoon and finding an open restaurant that would admit us proved to be a challenge…So, we ended up at some random bar, nothing to write home about, so, unfortunately, no restaurant recommendation this time!

Teruel Airport

And, finally, the object of our visit!

We made it just before sunset and it was a thrill. It is quite a thing to be driving along a broad, open, empty plateau, lined by snowy peaks on both sides, to stumble upon hundreds of aircraft tails of all sorts!

The airport is not open to visitors, but you can drive all along its perimeter, where row upon row of airliners sit idle. Some of these aircraft are there temporarily until they are reassigned to a new operator or owner, some others may be dismantled or cannibalized for parts an spares at the end of their operational lives.

At the time of our visit, the airport was mostly full with aircraft from two Russian airlines, Transaero, that has collapsed just a couple of months earlier and had sent virtually all its fleet to storage here, and UTair, that had underwent a serious restructuring and downsizing in the months prior and had sent many of the redundant aircraft for storage.

Besides being a storage airport, it is also the base of a small aeronautical industrial cluster, with several companies, from MRO operators to drone research firms having set up shop in Teruel since the airport’s inauguration.

Again, to learn more about it, you can always check out my CNN piece…