“I embrace many of the ideas that make up the foundation of such a village, such as sustainability and minimalism.” But her individualistic side tugs more. “That was perhaps the greatest challenge of this project,” she says. “Who will milk the goats? Who will work in the garden? Who is taking care of lunch? Who is making soap? It’s kind of like a perpetual school camping trip,” she says.ĭerks realized that she wasn’t cut out for communal life. The residents make nearly all of their decisions by holding a meeting. “They’re highly motivated to develop the village based on their values.” For one, Barchel has no hierarchy. “There is an enormous vegetable garden, and they have a lot of fun together,” she says. Until they arrived seven years ago, the place had been deserted for four decades. A group of young idealists were converting a vacant farmhouse there into their new residence. In Barchel, an off-grid village west of Valencia, Derks immediately felt right at home. But Derks discovered that this ideal has more than a few imperfections.īut now and then she found herself in places that felt pretty utopian. “They are turning away from capitalism, from consumerism-and seeking some kind of utopian mini-society,” she explains.
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In addition to a desire for a lifestyle change, Derks observed that people moving into these sparsely populated reaches were also spurred by the strict lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic and a series of economic and housing crises. The exodus is so extreme that many rural villages are now complete ghost towns. “On top of that, there has been a great deal of migration to the coastal cities and to Madrid since the 1970s.” According to the Spanish government, 70 percent of the country’s land is occupied by just 10 percent of the population, a phenomenon commonly referred to as España vacía, or empty Spain. “Spain is much more spacious than, say, the Netherlands or Belgium,” Derks says. Spain also has something other European countries lack. According to the Global Ecovillage Network, a volunteer organization, Spain has about 90 ecovillages, far more than most countries in Europe. The deserted village, which can be reached only by foot, was settled anew by a group of German hippies in the late 1980s, and today has about 50 permanent residents. Founded over 30 years ago, one of Spain’s oldest examples is Matavenero, a remote mountain outpost in the León Province. The sustainable community concept may have existed for centuries, but the term “ecovillage” is relatively new.