El Centenillo in Jaén: Ideal refuge for societal collapse

The perfect village for the end of the world is in Jaén

The perfect village for the end of the world exists and is located in Jaén. It is called El Centenillo, and those who claim to have found it attribute abundant water, guaranteed fishing, deer and wild boar, two controllable access routes from natural watchtowers, mild climate for gardening, edible wild plants, silver and lead underground, and caves for shelter when everything burns. The uncomfortable detail that seals its candidacy is the population's age: the place will be practically empty within a few years.

The proposal quickly received feedback. And not exactly what was sought.

What is required of a village for the end of the world

The list is not a Sunday whim. Water for drinking, irrigation and hygiene; large game; garden land; and easily closable access points. Water is the undisputed requirement: with a river or spring one can drink, cultivate and clean, and conditions should not be too good or more people will arrive. Health enters the equation. A warm climate favors gardening and, according to this approach, prevents diseases in a scenario without modern medicine. Long, humid winters with scarce resources, it is argued, cause illness sooner. None of this is neutral: each criterion hides a bet on how the day after will look.

Rejections: Teruel, the north and 1,606 meters

The obvious candidates fell first. Griegos, in Teruel, is at 1,606 meters altitude, which disqualified it: at that elevation, in winter, the requirements list ends itself. The interior of Castellón was also rejected due to its Mediterranean nature, as were locations near Madrid or Barcelona. The north received its share of objections: the mountains of Lugo and Orense bring wolves at dawn, while the Cantabrian coast, El Bierzo or El Jerte were cited as alternatives with wood, fauna and water. Villafranca Montes de Oca, pre-Pyrenean Huesca with abandoned hamlets like Iscles, Sierra Norte de Sevilla and Ochate, in Burgos, were mentioned.

El Centenillo: yes to water, but a dry area heading for desertification?

The name that closed the predictions was El Centenillo, in Jaén. Springs, fertile land and tolerable temperatures, said the profile. The counter-argument came quickly: the north has wood, fauna and abundant water, and the environment around Jaén is, for some objectors, a dry area heading for desertification. Another open issue is the source of the water. A well does not dry up in a bad summer as a spring might, provided it is not overexploited. The matter remained unresolved, which is exactly how such issues usually remain.

Water, wind and the real cost of cold climates

Here the climate criterion ceased to be opinion and became a calculation. Mild climate is cheaper than cold: with days not exceeding five degrees and humidity near 100%, thermal clothing is insufficient and electric or gas heating is necessary. If electricity and gas prices continue to rise, energy poverty will hit colder areas sooner. The other aspect is older: villages were founded where there was water and where the wind blew, because air, humidity and disease go hand in hand.

Knowing how to skin a rabbit matters more than the map

The fundamental drawback was not geographical. The best valley is useless if one does not know how to build with local materials, farm, care for livestock, skin a rabbit, butcher a pig or pluck a chicken. And what cannot be bought is missing: neighbors. Without several families in the settlement, the project is dead. The most brutal calculation is summarized in one phrase: 95% of the population, taken from urban environments, cars and electricity, would not last two weeks. The key, therefore, is not just the location, but ensuring that desperate individuals and organized gangs do not arrive in the first months.

Villages with four inhabitants and houses with loopholes

The most concrete case appeared in Teruel: Castelvispal, a valley reached after half an hour on a poorly maintained regional road, with four registered inhabitants (INE 2020) and postal code 44412. There were children playing, open doors and neighbors speaking Basque, indicating someone was repopulating the place with family and friends. In León, Maragata architecture offers another lesson: houses with inner courtyards to store vehicles and windows converted into loopholes. Some even rewrote, in the style of a road novel, a nocturnal encounter at a lonely service station with an old man who does not complain about loneliness. The map matters less than who inhabits it.

With this material, it is reasonable to expect the trickle towards empty villages continues and candidates concentrate in Teruel, Soria and Guadalajara, the provinces with the lowest density. Doubt remains appropriate nonetheless. Some argue that a global collapse would sweep across all of Europe and there would be nowhere to hide in Spain. The perfect village, for now, remains a well-documented hypothesis.