Spain & Spanish Culture Education Posters & Prints
curriculum resources for classrooms and home schoolers.

The Kingdom of Spain, a constitutional monarchy, is located on the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. Spain is bordered on the west by Portugal, the Atlantic Ocean on the west and north, on the northeast by France and the principality of Andorra, by the Mediterranean and Straits of Gibralter on the east and south. Spain also has two exclaves in North Africa, another in the Pyrenees, controls the Canary Island in the Atlantic and islands in the Mediterrean.

The name Spain derives from the Latin Hispania.

The site of the capital of Spain, Madrid, along the Manzanares River on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe, has been occupied since prehistoric times. The name Madrid evolved from the Arabic name for the river, al-Marjit, “source of water”.

The motto of Madrid is “Fui sobre agua edificada, mis muros de fuego son. Esta es mi insignia y blasón”. (On water I was built, my walls are made of fire. This is my ensign and escutcheon.)

The area around Madrid was known as Ursaria, Latin for “land of bears”, giving rise to the imagery of bears and their favorite morsels, the fruit of the Strawberry tree, as the emblem of Madrid.

• cities posters

Flamenco is a type of folk music that evolved from the native Andaluisan, Moorish, Sephardic and Gypsy cultures of southern Spain.

Flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya (1913-1963) performed from the time she was four years old, acted in several films and danced at the White House by invitations from FDR and Truman.

• dance posters

The Running of the Bulls through the streets of Pamplona during the festival of San Fermin is the most popular event in Spain and was brought to the world's attention by author Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises.

The purpose of the bulls running through streets, or in Spanish encierro from the verb encerrar, “to lock/shut up, to pen”, is to move the bulls from holding pens to the bullfighting ring. Since bullfighting is for professionals, the encierro gave any young man who dares a chance to show off. Encierros are also held in other towns in Spain as well as Portugal and Mexico.

“Tapas” are appetizers in Spanish cuisine, the word also decribes the way and time of eating small amounts of food with friends at a tapas bar before the traditionally late dinner hours in Spain. The word tapas means “cover”, one explanation of the evolution of the word to describe a cuisine is the covering of a drink or food with a piece of bread to protect it from insects.

• food posters
• Spanish language charts

Continent of Europe
Poster Text:
PHYSICAL FEATURES/CLIMATE
Some people consider Europe and Asia to be one continent called Eurasia, since the continents are not divided by a body of water. Europe's western boundary is the Atlantic Ocean, and its eastern boundary includes the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea in Russia. ...

• more continent posters
• Europe posters

The Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes reflected in the River Tagus, Toledo, Spain

• more European rivers posters

Esculturas, Antonio Gaudi
b. 6-25-1852; Catalan, Spain
d. 6-10-1926; Barcalona

• architecture posters