JUZCAR - A SMURF VILLAGE IN SPAIN
Guest post by photography and travel enthusiast Mela Mörtenbäck
Here I am – back from my road trip through Spain and Portugal, with loads of great places to share with the Everplaces community. Let’s start with Júzcar, a small Spanish village in the heart of Andalusia.
Hearing the hard facts about Júzcar, one would never consider this village as that special place it actually is. But in 2011 the small village in the province of Málaga was chosen to host the premiere of the Smurfs movie. Therefore, the white-washed buildings were painted entirely in that unique Smurf blue.
This is where the amazing story of Júzcar actually begins. Although Sony Pictures promised to return the village to its former white color, the 221 inhabitants voted to keep the buildings painted blue as due to the new awareness the number of tourists increased from 300 a year to an estimated 80.000 in the first sixth months.
Today, on June 16th, Júzcar celebrated its first anniversary as „Pueblo Pitufo“ and tourists still have the chance to take guided Smurf-tours to discover the uniqueness of the village. In addition, the village holds regular events such as a Smurf moonlight fun run, Smurf painting competitions and Smurf trade fairs.
Make sure to visit this lovely place when you’re in the province of Málaga, save it to your collection on Everplaces and check out some of my impressions.
By guest blogger Mela Mörtenbäck, passionate traveler and hobby photographer from Tyrol, Austria. Mela loves to combine traveling and photography by exploring new cities. You can see her full collection on Everplaces here.
