Spain has always been linked to Europe, as Europeans have continuously visited this land that forms part of the western peninsula of the Medirranean, from the pilgrims that walked for months or even years to pray before the tomb of St. James the Apostle, near the Atlantic Ocean, to the Romantic travellers that were attracted by their curiosity to observe a people that was, to them, completelyunknown However, just as Europeans came to Spain, the kingdoms of Hispania have always been linked to Europe in a somewhat reflexive way. They were joined by art and technical resources, the Latin tongue and Roman law, and later by the pilgrims' road to Santiago de Compostela, Romanesque art, the earliest monastic orders and the marriage of our kings with princesses from the various houses of Europe. It is true that together with this European-minded sentiment, there has always been an unstoppable natural flourishing, consciously or otherwise, of the peculiar, the autochthonous, and this way of observing oneself and others forms part of the cultural and social roots of the people of Spain.