Picture an entire village standing silent above a river, its houses empty, its school without pupils and its bar without customers. Now picture an American couple walking through it and deciding to bring it back to life. That is the story of Salto de Castro, a settlement in western Spain that stood abandoned for more than three decades before a Californian entrepreneur bought it. Here’s how the purchase happened, what the village contains, how much money is involved, how residents might fit into the plan, and what the proposed project could mean for the future of rural Spain. The project has drawn attention to the challenges of restoring depopulated communities and turning abandoned buildings into places where people can live, work and gather again.
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