Spain
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139 free Spain trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Spain trivia questions with answers. From the sun-soaked beaches of the Costa del Sol to the snow-capped Pyrenees, Spain is a country of extraordinary contrasts. This quiz spans centuries of history — from the Moorish golden age of Al-Andalus through the Reconquista, the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire, and Franco's dictatorship to modern democracy. You'll be tested on iconic landmarks like the Sagrada Família and Alhambra, beloved traditions like tapas and flamenco, sporting legends from La Liga, and the artists and writers who shaped Western culture. Whether you've walked the Camino de Santiago or simply love a good paella, see how much you really know about España.
30 of 139 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which currency did Spain use before it adopted the euro?
Peseta
The peseta was Spain's currency from 1868 until euro notes and coins replaced it in 2002, at 166.386 pesetas to the euro; the central bank went on exchanging leftover peseta notes until mid-2021.
Q 02Which Spanish architect designed the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona?
Antoni Gaudí
Antoni Gaudí took over the Sagrada Família in 1883, a year after Francisco de Paula del Villar began it, and devoted the rest of his life to it until his death in 1926; construction has run well over a century.
Q 03What is the traditional Spanish rice dish typically made with saffron, seafood, or meat?
Paella
Paella takes its name from the wide, shallow pan it is cooked in, traditionally outdoors over a wood fire; the word is simply Catalan for a frying pan.
Q 04Which football club plays its home matches at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium?
Real Madrid
Real Madrid has played at the ground since it opened in December 1947; in 1955 it was renamed for Santiago Bernabéu, the former player who was club president when it was built.
Q 05What is gazpacho?
A cold vegetable soup
Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup that is older than its best-known ingredients: the tomatoes and peppers blended into it reached Spain from the Americas only in the 16th century.
Q 06Which Spanish artist painted Guernica, a mural-sized work depicting the horrors of war?
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 in response to the bombing of the Basque town during the Civil War; the canvas then spent decades at New York's Museum of Modern Art and reached Spain only in 1981.
Q 07What pilgrimage route across northern Spain ends at the shrine of the apostle James in Galicia?
Camino de Santiago
The Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) is a web of routes converging on Santiago de Compostela, where the apostle's relics are said to rest; pilgrims who walk at least the last 100 km earn a certificate, the Compostela.
Q 08Which island group off the northwest coast of Africa is an autonomous community of Spain?
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands lie about 100 km off the African coast; their name is thought to come from the Latin for 'islands of dogs', and the canary bird is named after the islands, not the other way round.
Q 09Which festival in the town of Buñol is a giant one-hour food fight?
La Tomatina
La Tomatina falls on the last Wednesday of August, when trucks haul in well over 100 tonnes of overripe tomatoes; it grew so popular that since 2013 entry has been ticketed and capped at about 20,000 people.
Q 10Which river, reaching the Atlantic at Lisbon, is the longest in the Iberian Peninsula?
Tagus
The Tagus (Tajo in Spanish, Tejo in Portuguese) runs about 1,007 km across Spain and Portugal to the Atlantic at Lisbon; because it leaves the country, the Ebro is the longest river wholly within Spain.
Q 11Which hilltop palace-fortress of the Nasrid sultans is famed for its Court of the Lions?
The Alhambra
The Alhambra takes its name from the Arabic for 'the red', probably after the colour of its walls; Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra, published in 1832, later brought its Moorish palaces to the attention of the wider world.
Q 12Which cured ham's top grade, labelled 'de bellota', comes from acorn-fed black-hoofed pigs?
Jamón ibérico
Jamón ibérico comes from black Iberian pigs or crosses that are at least half Iberian; for the de bellota grade they spend their last months ranging free through oak pastures, and the exercise and acorn diet flavour the meat.
Q 13Which annual festival in Pamplona features the running of bulls through the streets?
Q 21What name is given to the eight-century campaign by Christian kingdoms against Muslim rule in Iberia?
La Reconquista
La Reconquista was no steady advance: most of the peninsula was back in Christian hands by about 1250, yet one last Muslim emirate in the far south held out for nearly 250 years more.
Q 22What happens to most of the huge figures built for Las Fallas?
Set alight
Set alight on the festival's final night, La Cremà: only the figures the public votes to pardon are spared the flames and kept in a museum.
Q 23Which strait separates Spain from Morocco and links the Mediterranean to the Atlantic?
Strait of Gibraltar
San Fermín
San Fermín fills Pamplona each July, with a bull run through the old town every morning; Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises made the festival known around the world.
Q 14Which tennis player from Mallorca has won a record number of French Open titles?
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal, born in Manacor on Mallorca, won the French Open 14 times between 2005 and 2022; in 2021, while he was still competing there, the tournament unveiled a statue of him in its grounds.
Q 15By what name does Spain's 1978 constitution call the Spanish language?
Castilian
Castilian, or castellano, is the constitution's name for the official language of the whole state, because Spain's other languages count as Spanish languages too and are co-official in their own regions.
Q 16Which museum in Madrid houses works by Velázquez, Goya, and El Greco?
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado opened in 1819 in a building commissioned as a natural history museum; by the time it was finished, King Ferdinand VII had decided it should show the royal paintings instead.
Q 17What type of dance and music originated in the Andalusia region of Spain?
Flamenco
Flamenco fuses song, dance and guitar, with hand-clapping and foot-stamping as its percussion; UNESCO, which listed it in 2010, notes that it also has roots outside its heartland, in Murcia and Extremadura.
Q 18Which Spanish region has Barcelona as its capital and has a strong independence movement?
Catalonia
Catalonia's parliament declared independence on 27 October 2017, after a referendum the Constitutional Court had ruled illegal; Spain's government answered by sacking the regional cabinet and imposing direct rule.
Q 19What is sangria?
A wine punch with fruit
Sangria is a wine punch with fruit; the name probably comes from sangre, Spanish for blood, and under EU rules only Spain and Portugal may sell it as plain 'Sangria', so versions made elsewhere must say where they come from.
Q 20Who wrote Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel?
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes published Don Quixote in two parts, in 1605 and 1615; a rival's unauthorised sequel had appeared in 1614 under the name Avellaneda, and Cervantes answers it in his own second part.
The Strait of Gibraltar is named for the Rock beside it, from the Arabic for 'Mountain of Tariq': Tariq ibn Ziyad led the Muslim army that crossed these waters to invade Spain in 711.
Q 24What is a tortilla española?
A potato omelette
A potato omelette, thick and round, made with eggs and fried potatoes; Spaniards split into rival camps, 'concebollistas' and 'sincebollistas', over whether it should also contain onion.
Q 25Which surrealist artist, known for melting clocks, was born in Figueres?
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí painted the melting clocks of The Persistence of Memory in 1931; he later turned his home town's burned-out theatre into a museum of his own work and is buried in a crypt beneath its stage.
Q 26What is the name of the Spanish parliament?
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales, with its lower and upper houses, keeps a medieval name: cortes means 'courts', after the royal councils of the Iberian kingdoms out of which their assemblies grew.
Q 27Which Balearic island is known for its electronic dance music nightlife scene?
Ibiza
Ibiza's clubs bred the eclectic 'Balearic beat'; a group of British DJs on holiday there in 1987, Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling among them, took the sound home, where it helped launch acid house.
Q 28Which Tudor queen did Spain's Armada set out to overthrow?
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I's navy broke up the fleet's formation with fireships off Calais in 1588; storms then wrecked many of the ships on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland as they sailed home the long way round.
Q 29What are tapas?
Small snacks served with drinks
Tapas are small snacks served with drinks; tapa means 'lid', and the name is said to come from the slices of bread or cured meat that drinkers once set on top of their glasses.
Q 30Which future FC Barcelona star was promised his first contract on a paper napkin at age 13?
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi was 13 when Barcelona's Carles Rexach, pressed to prove the club was serious and with no other paper to hand, wrote the pledge on a napkin; Messi stayed until 2021 and scored a club-record 672 goals.