{"id":37134,"date":"2025-09-25T13:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T13:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/37134\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T13:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T13:29:12","slug":"calonge-the-spanish-village-given-a-fairytale-ending-by-bookshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/37134\/","title":{"rendered":"Calonge: The Spanish village given a fairytale ending by bookshops"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bold idea, a \u20ac10,000 offer and hundreds of hopefuls. A once overlooked town near Barcelona sparked an unexpected cultural revival, and other towns are now watching closely.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, Meritxell Ral was watching the news when she heard that Calonge, 90 minutes north of Barcelona by car, was offering \u20ac10,000 grants to anyone who wanted to open a bookshop there.Though only a few kilometres inland from Costa Brava, the medieval town was facing depopulation and shuttered shopfronts as businesses and young people gravitated towards the coast. In response, local leaders launched a bold initiative to reinvent Calonge as Catalonia\u2019s first permanent \u201cbook town\u201d. Ral jumped at the chance to start her own business. \u201cI didn\u2019t know the village but I needed a change,\u201d she says. She wasn\u2019t the only one. Within 24 hours, more than 270 people applied.<\/p>\n

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Today, Calonge is home to six bookshops, including Ral\u2019s generalist Rals Llibres and others specialising in comics, music and history. The town attracts foreign and local visitors all year with literary events, poetry readings and a wine and theatre festival. \u201cOver the past four years, Calonge has come back to life,\u201d says its mayor, Jordi Soler Casals.<\/p>\n

Calonge isn\u2019t the world\u2019s only book town. The concept emerged in the 1960s, when Robert Booth began filling empty buildings with books in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye. Now the International Organisation of Book Towns connects 25 locations worldwide, including Montolieu in France and Urue\u00f1a, the first in Spain. In Calonge, the project has revitalised the local economy and attracted investment; there are now two new restaurants and a 12-room hotel. \u201cWe were surprised by the power of books to create synergies between people,\u201d says Soler Casals.<\/p>\n

As coastal resorts become overcrowded, Calonge offers a quieter, more thoughtful experience \u2013 a cultural model that could help to reshape the region\u2019s future. \u201cWe need to learn to diversify,\u201d says Soler Casals, highlighting the potential of Catalonia\u2019s inland regions to offer culture, wine, hiking and historical heritage. \u201cSol i platja are important but they shouldn\u2019t be everything.\u201d
pobledellibres.cat<\/a><\/p>\n

The best bookshops not to miss in Calonge<\/p>\n

1.
La F\u00e0brica
This music-themed bookshop, run by a composer and singer, is also a wine bar.
1 Pla\u00e7a Major<\/p>\n

2.
Calonge C\u00f2mics
There are drawing classes and a space for board games at this comics bookshop.
27 Carrer Major<\/p>\n

3.
Rals Llibres
This generalist bookshop has a particularly good offering of illustrated titles and those for children.
13 Carrer Major<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bold idea, a \u20ac10,000 offer and hundreds of hopefuls. A once overlooked town near Barcelona sparked an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[412,30384,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-37134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-bookshops","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}