I bring this idea from the Spanish forum. The purpose is to show cities that are almost unknown even within their country, but have a certain cultural/economical/demographical importance. That kind of cities you pass by on the highway saying "meh, there's nothing worth seeing there", but they are a great surprise when you visit them because of its quality of living, monuments etc. So this is basically underrated & unknown cities.

The opposite would be for example Santiago de Compostela and Toledo in Spain. Both cities has less than 100k inhabitants but everybody in Spain knows where they are.


I'll start with Sabadell, a Catalan city 22 km far from Barcelona. With over 206k inhabitants, it is the home of the ninth biggest Spanish bank (Banco Sabadell). Totally eclipsed by Barcelona.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Localitzaci%C3%B3_de_Sabadell.png

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/3870322307_49707995f9_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2695/4408040529_e3735bd56e_b.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3039/3906946312dbaae97a6a.jpg

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1254/3906945404c1d27c908d.jpg

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1341/4365262836f5b444cea2.jpg

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1801/3592668112304867b386.jpg

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2757/3591841347435d6b2355.jpg

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2020/3591808173ee6e08df9d.jpg

http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/1148/302784597074d213885d.jpg

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/5610/25000669854b3b96081e.jpg

Not a big success I see :lol:

I'll continue with Ponferrada, with less than 70k inhabitants. Home of Endesa, one of the largest electrical companies of Spain.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Sit_bierzo.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/3134646571_1944b6b87c.jpg

Templar castle:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/65960851_1ac150563a.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4395906661_1757f2bb8b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/139352191_7ce7a3f013.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3425/3901326423_745d7fcca3.jpg

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/3011/picture12151.jpg

very nice!!! keep it coming.
when i'll have a bit of time i'll post something from italy...

sabadell looks very american, it could be somewhere in california or maybe we should say that california could be somewhere in spain :lol:

^^

No way... Sabadell looks more like a chilean or argentine city.